Elemental Hero
by Robin the Ylissian Grandmaster
Summary: Join Avatar Katashi as he finds his place in the new world of My Hero Academia! Is he cut out to Be a pro hero or will he fall to villainy or resort to vigilantism? Whatever he does, the world will never be the same. Rated M for harsh language, violence, blood, and sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

Long ago the Four Nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them, but when the world needed him the most, he vanished. One hundred years passed and the new Avatar, an air-bender named Aang, was discovered by two members of the water tribe, Katara and Sokka. Although he was a master of air-bending, he still had a lot to learn before he could save anyone. With the help of many friends, he was able to overcome the many challenges that laid before him, master the four elements, and bring and end to the hundred years conflict. Following the Great War, Avatar Aang made many valiant contributions towards the unification of the Four Nations and made astounding progress, but there is only so much one can do in a single lifetime.

Seventy years later, after the death of Aang, the new Avatar arose from the water tribe right when the world was about to fall into turmoil again. Avatar Korra was incredibly fluent in her control over the four elements once she learned air-bending from the son of Aang, and showed great prowess in elemental combat. However, she lacked good connection to and strength in the Avatar state. This was even further diminished when her connection to the previous Avatars was severed and their memories for the most part were lost forever. Although she was able to stave off the pending chaos, her failures as an Avatar proved too fatal in the future.

Avatar Korra died at the age of twenty-seven years old after many years of faltering peace, hatred, and constant reminders of her failures that seemed to always outweigh her successes and turned her into a despised pariah. Though her closest friends knew that she tried her best to live up to the successes of the previous Avatars, the people saw the position of Avatar as a world arbitrator as useless and counterproductive. War soon ensued following her death with the Earth Kingdom spearheading the conflict with their new advantage of having the Avatar. Thus, began the cycle of war where the Avatar would be used as a weapon, due to the fact that the new Avatars would not have the millennia of shared memories to recount on for judgment, that would last for centuries. Each new cycle of rebirth would see one of the Nations gain advantage over the others for several decades until the Avatar spirit passed on to a new host. The memories of invaluable knowledge, wisdom, and judgment were lost, only to be replaced with memories filled with endless warfare and violence, building each rebirth to be more powerful and devastating.

After six hundred years of war, the world of the Four Nations was a lost cause to the spirit realm, seeing that the power of elemental bending had tainted the souls of humanity and the power of Raava and the Avatar had abused by the people sacrilegiously. It was time for the Spirit realm to retreat from this world and take the Avatar with them.

Avatar Katashi of the Fire Nation sat upon a hill overlooking the ruins of Republic city while he meditated to converse with Raava. He was glad that it was not himself that lead the attack that sacked the city, but he still felt some guilt over the fact it had been his last reincarnation that committed the crime about twenty years ago. And it was not the first time one of his past reincarnations had sacked a capital city, but they all mounted up on his shoulders and weighed him down along with his own crimes in his short seventeen years of life. Although, he had only been recognised as the Avatar at the age of twelve, just as young as the famous Avatar Aang, he quickly mastered all the elements and some of their sub skills under duress to fulfil war needs.

"It's that time, isn't it, Raava? It's time for us to leave this wretched world behind and find a new home to try and find peace?" the black-haired fire-bender asked the presence that had been with him his whole life.

Though she did not make a physical appearance, the spirit of light nevertheless still answered his question, "I have long since forgiven you and your predecessors for all that you have done, you were the subject of brainwashing and torture into compliance. You were lost and without guidance like all your predecessors since Korra, but what has happened must never be forgotten." A warm tear slid down his face as the countless memories of cruelty passed through his mind. He knew that he could never truly find peace, but he wanted at least to help people for once and fulfil his true purpose as an Avatar. "The Harmonic Convergence is upon us, we shall use its power to fuse the Spirit Realm with you and leave for an uncorrupted world. With this fusion, you will be the last Avatar for all time. We cannot let your power fall into the wrong hands again."

Katashi sighed deeply, "So I am to live alone all eternity in the company of spirits? Well it's nothing I don't deserve for everything that I and my past selves have done." He hoped that the convergence was happening soon because it would not be too long before his guards found where he was, even if it was past nightfall.

"Not necessarily, but we can see what is within our power at a later date," the spirit of light commented suspiciously.

"I'll hold you to that," the Avatar scrunched his eyebrows, ruining his meditative pose. "You've told me that you have seen our destination, so tell me, do they have bending abilities or is this a fresh start?"

Raava chuckled in her motherly way, "They do have powers of some-sort, not bending abilities, but strong powers nonetheless. Some of these people that have quirks, which is what they call their powers, work as heroes for the general welfare of the public."

This brightened his mood tremendously, it was a place where can fit right in and do good for the people, and be looked upon as a hero rather than as a weapon to be used until he was useless. "Would you be okay with me trying to be a hero, Raava?"

She gave another one of her laughs before her answer, "I forget how young you really are sometimes. But yes, you can be a hero. I expected you to become one, otherwise you would be wasting my power. However, you have to go to a school for heroes before you can become one in their world, which means you need to learn how to read and write properly first and foremost." Her voice almost sounded condescending.

"But I know how to read and write," he tried to complain before he was cut off.

"Not in their language, but give me a couple of days of working with your brain and I can resolve the problem," Raava lectured harshly. She could feel the rising power of the Harmonic Convergence, it was almost time for them to leave their world. "On your feet now, it's time and you don't want to end up sitting in the middle of a street. Do not struggle, just let the power flow over you and it will be over momentarily."

"It still doesn't feel right to abandon our home world and leave the people to fend for themselves and eventually destroy themselves," the Avatar sorrowfully gazed over the ruins of one of the many cities his predecessors had razed.

"This world is already dead," the spirit of light reluctantly admitted though the Avatar already knew it was true, "Its people are corrupted, they have become irredeemable, and they have abused the gifts we spirits have blessed them. I am deeply sorry that I could not stop this nor could I protect you from falling into the cycle. I may not be able to guide you that much in this new world, just promise me that you will put my powers to good use and become the hero that world needs."

"I promise, Raava, and thank you for everything you have done for me," Katashi reminisced on his few good memories the spirit provided him. The voices of his guards could be hear calling his name in the distance, it would not be too long before they found him.

Standing up, he stretched his tall, muscular stature from siting down for so long, and adjusted his armoured uniform. He immediately felt the effects of the auspicious occasion overwhelm him. An ethereal white light enveloped him, causing his strength to surge beyond anything he had ever felt before, but he also felt the presence of thousands of celestial life-forces entering his soul and merging with his Avatar State. They were all whispering to him, some praising him for his bravery to stand up for what he was meant to do, darker ones were tempting him to try and commit unspeakable things. All of them were silenced by Raava as she reasserted her control in guiding her young host through the process.

Katashi felt sick briefly, followed by quick cycles of various emotions as though the convergence was forcing him to develop some sort of cognitive issue, and it did not make feel any better. He watched as the night and ruined city faded into blinding whiteness and he lost all sense of direction and gravity, turning his stomach upside down once more. All his instincts told him to fight off the convergence, but Raava's soothing presence kept him in check and guided him towards the end of the tunnel they were travelling.

All of a sudden, the white light disappeared, abandoning him in the diming light of a different cold afternoon. Exhausted and withdrawn from the surge of strength, he collapsed into a heap on the ground of a strange alley. _Son of a bitch, Raava never said it was going to be this tiring_ , he thought with his waning consciousness, _it feels like the first day of boot camp_. The last thing he saw was a teenaged girl with bob styled brown hair and wearing some sort of sailor uniform running up to him.

"Hey, mister, are you alright?" he heard a concerned voice call out to him as his eyes began to close. "Hey! Don't die on me, okay?" He then passed out into the void of slumber.

 _~Elemental~_

Chapter 1

Katashi woke up to the morning sun shining through a window and into his face. He first noticed that the room was colder than it should be, meaning it either did not have a heater or someone had left it off purposely. Luckily, the futon he was sleeping on had a lot of blankets to make up for the lack of heat, even if they were pink. The rest of the room was pretty basic other than a few cute stuffed animals hidden away in the corner and a desk with a chair next to the door. Outside the window, he could see another building taking up the entire view, meaning he was probably in a big city.

When he sat up, he noticed that he was still wearing his white tank top and black pants, but his uniform top, armour, and boots were missing. They were nowhere to be seen in the room, so he threw off the sheets and stumbled to his feet as he raced out the door and down a hall. He found himself in a living room with an adjoined kitchen. Sitting on the floor at a low-lying table, was the brown-haired girl that he vaguely remembered eating ball shaped snacks.

Her attention was quickly caught by Katashi barrelling into the room, but all she said was "Oh, you're awake! Want some mochi?" as she cheerfully offered one of the snacks.

"Wait, where am I and who are you and do I want what?" he shot off the questions in rapid fire, causing the girl to frown when he ignored her offer. The whole scene was confusing the soldier Avatar, seeing as what felt like minutes ago he had just abandoned his old world and appeared in an alleyway of a strange city before passing out, but woke up in the home of a cute girl in his underclothes. He needed a full grasp of the situation before he could try fulfilling his to Raava.

"Mochi, it's a rice cake snack," the girl's mood changed to be more cheerful as she elected to ignore the order of his questions and offered the snack again. He quickly accepted the pink coloured ball and ravenously ate the sweet and gel-like snack. "As for where you are, it's quite obviously my family's apartment, and my name is Uraraka Ochako. And who might you be, mister foreigner-cosplaying-as-a-samurai-that-randomly-appeared-in-an-alley-and-passed-out-with-no-papers-to-identify-himself?"

Katashi staggered at how blunt and straight-forward the girl could be with such a cheerful attitude, but he had to admit that his situation may be quite strange. However, he had a feeling that he could trust her, except with the fact that he was the Avatar from another world, he may end up being locked up for sounding crazy. "My name is Katou Katashi and I've come to this great city in order to attend a school to become a hero. It's been my dream for my whole life to help people for a change and inspire others to do the same. As for why I collapsed in an alley randomly, I have a quirk that allows me to manipulate the wind and essentially fly and I was really exhausted when I landed there after my long journey."

He was not lying to her, just not telling her the whole truth, while he did have a mastery in air-bending, he was better at the other three elements with lightning, metal, and sand bending tucked under his belt as well. Ochako seemed to accept his answer with a jolly smile, not even questioning his air-bending. _What is up with her unnaturally cheerful nature_ , he analysed. She gestured for him to sit next to her at the table, which he gladly accepted.

"So, you're planning to attend U.A. just like me then! A quirk like yours could be very helpful and pretty amazing," she clapped her hands that had mysterious pink pads on her finger tips together. "Are you registered for the entrance exam next week? If not, there is still some time left and I can show you what you need to get that done."

"Thank you very much, I'd really appreciate the help even if it puts me further in your debt," he conceded his unfortunate position. It felt so unnatural to have a stranger try to help him rather than pick his pocket and kick him to the curb; how could expect any better than that when it was the destitute nature of his old home. "To be honest, I'm really glad I met someone else trying to get into the school, I would not know where to start without you. I can already tell that you have the calling of a hero as well with all the help you have been giving to me."

"Oh, it was just a natural response to help someone that collapsed in an alleyway, I wasn't trying to be heroic or anything," She blushed furiously while she bit into another piece of mochi, embarrassed by the unexpected return of compliments. He had to admit, Ochako was very cute and he found himself attracted to her despite barely knowing her.

Katashi's mind returned to the issue of getting into the school. If this school needed him to register in order to attend the entrance exam, then it would not be too farfetched for his powers and citizenship to be certified as well, which meant he would need to dig up his foraging skills to create false certificates. "And could you also show me to the public library or somewhere that I can access the ethernet, please, I need to get my files and certificates to complete the registration," he requested politely with another half-truth.

With a puzzled look, "You mean the internet? Sure, I can get you to the library, but you really should have had those papers on you when you travel," Ochako complied with a back-handed reprimand.

Katashi reeled at his acquittance's personality; just a few minutes of being around her told him more than enough about who she was. She was definitely kind, cheerful, and caring, but it was not in a blind manner, seeing as she did not pull her punches when she let on that she knew something was wrong. However, that did not stop her from also giving appropriate compliments and assistance when needed. Judging on how basic her room was and that her heater was turned off, he could discern that she was also very frugal. All in all, he was glad that it was Ochako that found him when he first arrived and he was going to find a way to repay her in some way. _Seeing as they have computers in this world, maybe I can earn money to pay her back by fixing computers or by writing codes_ , he contemplated, _I was always really good with them in my youth before I was named the Avatar_.

"By the way, where do you come from, Katou-san?" the rosy cheeked girl suddenly inquired, breaking the silence. "You don't look like you come from Japan, let alone anywhere in Asia. Are you American? Or British? Either way, your accent sounds very natural and you speak Japanese very well."

He was much paler, he had blue eyes, and he had a different facial structure, so he always felt foreign in his old world with the exception of his black hair. Ochako, however, looked like she could fit right into his old world albeit with a few differences besides the brown hair. "Yeah, my parents were American, but I was born and raised here in Japan, they were part of the reason why I really want to help people and be a hero." He despised lying to her but he also did not want her to think he was crazy for telling the truth.

She accepted his answer but did not push it any further. Unbeknownst to him, Ochako felt that his wording implied that his parents were no longer alive and did not want estrange someone she hoped to befriend and go to school with in the future. A glance at the clock on the wall informed Katashi that it was almost seven in the morning, meaning he still had a whole day to figure out his living situation and how to get into the school.

"If you're new to town and need a place to stay while you get work on getting into U.A., my family would be more than happy to let you stay here until you can arrange living quarters with the school," she offered with a blush, expecting a flustered response. She had probably known the guy for fifteen minutes and she could tell he was a good person to be around. He was mysterious, but resolute in his ambitions; He was respectful, yet portrayed a warm and friendly attitude; and he was noble in his dreams, but also empathetic towards her.

As expected, his face reddened profusely as he began to answer, "I… Er…You don't need…"

"You don't need to come up with an answer yet," she interrupted his babbling mess. "I have things to attend to at school today so I will be gone for a few hours. Feel free to use the TV and have breakfast, we can get you to the library in the afternoon and decide where to go from there."

She quickly moved to get a jacket and a school bag that were sitting against the wall before retreating to the front hallway. Katashi barely caught up to the front hall just in time to see Ochako open the front door, "Hey, I just want to thank you for everything you have done for me, it means a lot to me, more than I can explain," Katashi called out before she could leave.

She smiled in cheerful manner, her rosy cheeks redder than ever, obviously his statement had struck a chord in her, "I'm just happy to be of help and to make a new friend. I'll see you soon, Katou-kun," she suddenly changed his honorific. With a bright smile, she closed as she left, leaving the young Avatar alone in the apartment.

 _~Elemental~_

The next week was a whirlwind of activity, both enjoyment and hard work. After Ochako left that first morning, Katashi spent the whole time meditating to reconnect with Raava so she could teach him how to read and write in Japanese as well as English to make his cover seem a little more believable. When he asked for guidance, he got warm laughter in response as she told him that he should be able to figure things out on his own.

The trip to the library taught him that Earth's computers were practically the same as his old world's, making it easier to put his old hacking and coding skills to use. Two hours later, he had hacked the Japanese government with immense difficulty and found all the documents that he needed to counterfeit. By the end, he created and planted all the documents that would ensure that any government enquiry into who he was would find Katou Katashi to be a seventeen-year-old American-Japanese citizen born in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture that went to school locally until halfway through secondary school when he decided to apply to U.A. The search would also find him to have a quirk called 'Avatar.' Putting an end to his devious activity, he finally put in his application to the hero school, to which he was almost immediately notified of his acceptance to take the entrance exam via a new email account.

Meeting Ochako's parents that evening was quite the blessing, they were just as kind and warm-hearted as their daughter, and they welcomed him to stay with them until he could get lodging with the school, stating: "We're just so happy our little Ochako found such a good friend, just make sure to treat her properly or I will hunt you down for your crimes!" However, he would be sleeping in the living room rather than borrowing the rosy-cheeked girl's bedroom.

Katashi spent the rest of the week out of the apartment, setting himself up for the future by opening a bank account then spending several days at the library creating dozens of codes to sell off to companies anonymously. By the day before the entrance exam, he had earned enough money to purchase a smartphone and a laptop to bring the work home. It was not that surprising that in a world dominated by quirks and heroes, advancements in computers would stagnate. The same happened in his home world where computers had been invented nearly three hundred years ago in a brief interim of the continuous wars, but took that entire time just to surpass what had been invented on Earth in a hundred years.

When the day of the exam finally came, the young Avatar realised that he had not been exercising as much that week as he used too, so he went on an early run to warm up. But when he reached the Municipal Beach, he caught sight of a green haired, plain-looking boy training in some manner that involved removing heavy loads of trash from the beach and depositing it in a loading area to be taken away. Judging on how much effort he was putting into it and how exhausted the athletic-looking kid appeared, he must have working on the project for a very long time. _Based on his age, he must be training last-minute for the exam_ , Katashi thought as he paused to watch the kid struggle, _he's going to wear himself out like that rather than actually do himself any good for the exam. Even if it's still dark out, I should probably help him out_.

"Hey, kid, do you need help there?" he called out to the strange kid. In reality, Katashi was probably only two or three years older than him, but his experience and his connection to the past Avatars made him feel much older than everyone else.

The kid stumbled with a giant tire at the sudden interruption to his training, "W-what? N-No, you don't need to help. I-I need to do this myself, it's part of my training regime that I have to finish before the entrance exam today." The kid was a babbling mess of anxiety, and it did not match the expected personality his physique displayed.

"Don't worry, it looks like you have very little left to do, so it won't damage your training and it will help me warm up for the exam too," he reassured the younger hero-in-training. He took off his shirt and placed it on the seawall to avoid dirtying it despite the cold air immediately seeping into his skin.

"Y-you're taking the entrance exam as well?" the stammering kid questioned.

"Yeah, my name is Katou Katashi," he answered as he started trash for his first load.

"Midoriya Izuku," the boy added before continuing with the giant tire.

The two aspiring heroes worked together efficiently to clean up the remaining trash dump, never missing a step or getting in each other's way. Surprisingly Izuku was just about as strong as Katashi, even in his tired state, but he was also putting his all into the training as if his entire future depended on it. Half an hour later found them finished, all the trash was loaded into a massive pile behind the seawall, while Katashi slumped on the clean beach exhausted. He never meant to get this into it and stay out until sunrise, but here he was, tired and struggling to put on his shirt to stave off the cold.

Suddenly, a ragged roar cried out into the morning, overshadowing the peaceful crashing of waves. Looking up the seawall towards where he could see the summit of the trash pile, he could see Izuku roaring like a feral beast that conquered its prey. What kind of training regime could drive a kid that hard?

The guttural roar ended after a few seconds, then the boy began to tumble from his perch. Katashi had to act fast, so a wave of his arms and the ocean reacted immediately to reach out at his command and catch the falling boy. His actions also stopped an extremely buff man that was rushing to catch Izuku as well. Slowly, he placed the green-haired boy on his feet, then released the water as he rushed over to join the man in checking on the boy.

"Thank you, young man!" the older man acknowledged Katashi in a proud and confidant tone. "Young Midoriya, you must have been here all night to finish this and – OH MY GOODNESS – You did more than I asked of you! You truly are an overachiever!"

Izuku was silent briefly as he collected his consciousness, "It was thanks to Katou-san that I was able to finish on time," he groaned in exhaustion.

"Thank you again, Young Katou, I will have to find a way to thank you in the future, but we must really be going now, his entrance exam starts soon."

That information struck Katashi like a thunderbolt. He checked his phone, it was six o'clock and he had several messages from Ochako. "Shit, Uraraka-chan is going to kill me. I will see you at the exam, Midoriya-san," he promised quickly. Before the buff man could say anything, the young Avatar used air-bending to propel himself high up into the air and proceed to fly towards Ochako's apartment.

At around eight thirty, He and Ochako were walking together from the train station to U.A. She still occasionally scolded her friend for getting home late, but for the most part she was overly excited for the exam. The only part he was nervous about was the written portion, even though he knew how to write in Japanese now, he was never that good with written tests despite how smart he was. They ran into Izuku again at the entrance to the school when Ochako had to save him from tripping over with her gravity quirk. The green-haired boy quickly became a silent mess as soon as he saw the gravity girl; Katashi would have become defensive of her if it were not for the fact the younger boy was too frightened to say anything properly.

They all soon found their seats in a giant testing with hundreds of other applicants, some of whom had quirks that were obvious or changed them from looking like normal humans. Among them he spotted a guy with powerful looking engines on his calves, a cute girl with pink skin and horns, and a floating sailor uniform which was being worn by an invisible girl. Even though she was invisible, Katashi could still see her outline defined by her chakra. The testing proctor gave brief directions before signalling for them to dive into the thick test booklet.

If he though the tests in his childhood were Hell, then these monstrosities must have come out of the deepest pits. The only things that probably kept him from failing were the vague study guide that he had vigorously studied last few nights and his meditative skills to keep him calm. Question after question, he could feel the tension and negative feelings piling up in the atmosphere, looking up from his test he could tell which students were being affected the most by stress and anxiety. It astounded him that students so young would be put through such vigorous tests just to get into a school, but he also understood that such a prestigious institute could not take every candidate. He barely finished when the time was called and joined in several others as they sighed in relief while many groaned at their shortcomings.

Once again, all the applicants were corralled into the halls before being driven into the seating of a vast auditorium, Katashi managed to get a seat next to Ochako who was happy to see him once more. Inside, a pro hero with stereos built into his costume, named Present Mic according to Izuku's mumbling a few seats away, kicked off a presentation for the practical half of the exam with a blast of his own voice, nearly deafening the front row students. Turned out that it was going to be a basic fighting test, defeat as many of the robots to get as many points as possible. Unfortunately, Ochako was assigned a different test group.

"Hey, you got put in the same testing group as me!" chirped the pink skinned and haired girl as she leaned on his shoulder from behind to check out his testing card. A closer look told him that the girl also had pure black sclera with vibrant yellow irises, something about them gave off an alluring vibe.

"Ah, nice to meet a fellow competitor," he greeted the new girl, putting aside the last thought. "I'll try to keep the competition fair and not hog all the glory out there."

"Ha! I'll keep you to your word, Mr. Confidant, but you will have to catch up to my level first!" she jested, quick to respond with sarcasm. "The name is Ashido Mina, and it looks like everyone else in our testing group will have to scavenge for points with two champions such as ourselves in one place," she smiled assertively.

While Ochako's bubbly cheerfulness was one of kindness and positivity, a glance could tell that Mina's was one of sociability and eagerness. "I'm Katou Katashi and I hope we can become good friends and classmates after this test." His response elicited a glare behind his back from Ochako.

"Same here, and I can't wait to see what sort of quirk you have hiding up your sleeves," she replied deviously.

After the presentation was concluded, in which Izuku was scolded by the engine boy for his muttering, all the applicants split up to attend their different testing centres, which surprised Katashi to be the size of several city-blocks with looming gates blocking their entrance. Stretching at the at the starting line, he felt ready to take on the test thanks to the warm up that morning. He could feel the nervousness still lingering in the air, but now it was mixed with more confidence and he could not help but feel the same sentiments. Mina stood a short distance from him doing her own stretches and preparations, but managed to give him a thumbs-up and a smile.

"Okay, Start!" Present Mic suddenly called out, probably without any effort, from his tall tower looking over the testing centres. Katashi was stunned for less than a second before he propelled himself with a gust of air ahead of the crowd through the now-open gate. "What's wrong? There are no countdowns in real fights! Run, run! The die has been cast, you know!" he heard the hero admonish the ones still stunned at the entrance.

It took only a few seconds of running for the first faux villain to appear around a corner to his right, it was a one pointer but the adrenaline in his blood refused to let him hold back. A loud and sharp snap in the direction of the robot ignited the air and engulfed the target in flames, causing it to explode. It seemed too easy, but then he was confronted by a three pointer that wasted no time in striking at him, giving him little time to air-bend up out of the way. Another snap of his left hand and a spark of lightning struck the villain, rendering it immobile and smoking. While most benders in his old world focused on the art form of their skills, Katashi preferred to aim for practicality and efficiency to reduce the excess energy wasted in elaborate movements that got the same results.

He ran into a mixed gang of the faux villains barely a few blocks down, not even hesitating to go to work on throwing around his bending skills to destroy every single one. A snap of his fingers would fry one with lightning followed by a wave of his arm upwards to mould the earth around another and crush it. For the most part, he primarily used his air-bending to dodge attacks or to trip the robots before they could get too close. He forgot to bring a water bottle so his use of water-bending was limited to using his sweat as distractions, leaving fire-bending to serve as his primary weapon by powering punches or simply incinerating his targets.

The one pointers were nothing more than cannon fodder that could easily be defeated with a wide and undirected spray of fire, while the two pointers were smart enough to use their inferiors as distractions while they struck from other angles, but were nonetheless too slow to make a difference. Three pointers, on the other hand, were both smarter and faster, being able to cause difficulty for him. They were even able to land blows on him on a few occasions, leaving him with several bruises and a laceration on his right shoulder that bled through his track suit.

"You fuckers just don't know when to give up," he bellowed at the villains after propelling himself backwards from getting that last injury. They answered with whirrs and clicks as the resumed their assault. "Come on you bastards! You're nothing compared to Water Nation guerrillas!"

Four minutes into the test and Katashi found himself over a kilometre away from the starting point having left a trail of nearly forty of the faux villains in his path. But he was alone when he finally destroyed the last robot in the gang, no one had joined him or came anywhere within sight. _I wonder how Mina-san is doing_ , he pondered, _I better get up high if I want to find her_. With a simple jump, he got himself of the ground, then propelled his body high above the building tops with a strong gust.

The result of his search shocked him. The rest of his testing group probably did not make it far before being ambushed by a horde of the villains, and they were all driven together to the centre of the mock city. As he approached from above to help the stranded group, he could tell that several students had been wounded and were down for the fight, while the rest were fighting for their lives. Four students in particular were maintaining a defensive perimeter around the gathered wounded and weaker fighters, netting the higher tier robots to keep them away.

Katashi immediately recognised Mina as one of the four; her pink skin was secreting some sort of acidic sludge that she was using both to speed up her footwork and to disintegrate her foes. The other three students had pretty interesting quirks as well, a girl with brunette hair could enlarge her fists to crush a single villain in one swipe, an angry-looking boy could turn his entire body to steel so he could easily punch through metal, and a blond-haired boy that could emit and manipulate electricity to fry the robots though he looked overworked.

With little hesitation, the young Avatar crashed down and smashed a three pointer approaching Mina with a fiery punch. "Glad I got here before things got worse," he assessed the dire situation.

"Yeah, nice of you to join us. We saved a few for your speedy ass," the pink heroine sarcastically mocked Katashi. She dodged a two pointer and smacked it with a layer of acid. "This can't be right, mobbing us with so many at one time. We're just students and some of us are seriously injured," she nodded back towards the gathered casualties.

He snapped a bolt of lightning that fried another three pointer while Mina watched in awe of such casual power. "This is supposed to be the best school, they have to weed out the crowd in order to cultivate the best. This must be testing us on protecting the innocent."

"I guess that is an optimistic approach to our situation," she contemplated aloud between destroying one pointers.

"Hey! Quit fucking around or these guys are going to overrun us!" the steel boy bellowed his fowl mouth over the chaos, ending their brief conversation.

His arrival definitely bolstered morale, not to mention that he helped thin out the horde by filling the gaps where the villains could slip through. Something also changed in Mina's style of fighting. She became more aggressive and taking the offensive, obviously competing with him and trying to catch his attention at every possible moment. However, he could not help but notice the skills she did have in defeating the robots, even if it was being done in a flashy manner, showing years of practice to master her quirk.

With just a minute on the clock, the last faux villain melted into a puddle of molten metal at the hands of his fire-bending. At last they were victorious, and most of them collapsed onto the floor with heavy breathing and aching muscles and wounds. Katashi sat upon one of the lifeless robots for a rest, quickly joined by Mina who sat behind and leaned back onto him. Just the simply contact let him feel her heavy breathing and racing pulse.

"Dude, you have one wicked quirk, Katou-san," the pink girl huffed in admiration. "Fire, lightning, earth, air, and metal. Can you control water too?"

"Yeah, but I really don't have water to bend, I usually carry around a water bottle for that," he replied bluntly. "Your quirk is pretty badass too. Never knew acid could be used like that for combat."

"Heh, when it transforms your appearance and sticks with you everywhere you go, you tend to learn a few tricks about it," she reasoned his compliments. "Tell my, friend, where did you learn your way around a battlefield?"

He never got to answer as the ground beneath them began to shudder, catching the attention of all the testing applicants. In the distance, a giant robot taller than any of the buildings began lurching down the street towards where all the students were recovering. It had a zero painted onto its body, signifying that it was the obstacle worth nothing, but it looked like a boss that wanted to kill them more than get in the way. Sure, he could defeat it by himself or even destroy it by swatting it once while in the Avatar state, but there were too many civilians there that were defenceless and at the mercy of the monster.

"We need to get to get everyone out of here now!" he bellowed his order as he shot to his feet along with Mina. "Those that can walk need to help the injured, we need to get to the exit as soon as possible!" Leading the way, he threw a girl with vines for hair onto his right shoulder and picked up a smaller boy with purple orbs for hair by the waist before heading down the war-torn avenue.

Just looking at the weary faces running with him towards the exit he could tell that they were barely holding it together. They were dead on their feet, yet they still drove on in flight from death. As they closed in on the gate, another student fainted and collapsed, but Katashi was to far ahead to get to her in time with the two he was already carrying. Without hesitation, Mina handed off the person she was already helping and rushed back towards their fallen comrade.

Katashi passed through the gate and gently put down the two students before looking back at the pink heroine. She had just begun towards the gate again, supporting the other student, but the colossus was only metres behind them.

"Ashido-san!" he called out and with great effort he harnessed the wind around the two. Seconds before the obstacle crushed them, the Avatar propelled them past the last few hundred metres to safety. The fallen student was caught mid-air by the metal boy, but Mina flew straight towards Katashi and collided with him, knocking him to the ground in a heap with her on top.

"Times up!" Present Mic announced over the campus of testing centres. "Oh, and can someone tell those two lovebirds to save it for later."

The dust settled and the realisation of the position they were in hit them like a wrecking ball, his entire face blushed to a crimson red while she darkened to a dark pink. They were separated in a flash, both blushing and faltering into blabbering messes.

"I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" they managed in unison, garnering a tired chorus of laughter from the onlookers.

"Ooooh, love on the battlefield!" someone catcalled from behind.

 _~Elemental~_

After everyone was healed up from their injuries, they made their way back to the school to gather their things before they left. Katashi tried to catch up with Mina, but she did not hear him as she was lost rushing through the crowd of applicants, her face still darkened by blushing. The Avatar then decided to wait by the front gate to meet up with Ochako, only to be met by her less than normal cheerfulness. Something obviously happened during her practical exam.

That something happened to be Izuku, as she told him on their way home. He risked his possibility of getting any points just to rescue her from the colossus and ended up shattering three of his limbs in the process of destroying it. When she went to Present Mic to ask for some of her points to be transferred to him for saving her and possibly losing points on her behalf. But the Pro Hero reassured her that she did not need to worry about the green-haired hero, leading her to question what all else went into the exam's scoring.

Katashi described the events of his testing, focusing on the ambush that snared all the other testers, which shocked the gravity girl that the school would go to such extremes to find the best candidates. He left out the whole incident with Mina falling on him at the end, but he still described how heroic she was in leading the defence against the ambush and risking her life to rescue the fallen student. When they compared their exams, they believed that his test was focused on heroism and defending others, rather than focusing on personal skill and achievement like her exam.

"I hope we get to be classmates at U.A. because I'm already pretty short on friends," he prayed with confidence as they turned onto the street for their home.

"We will see in a week, that's when acceptance letters are supposed to be mailed out," she confirmed. "And I think you will pretty popular with how amazing your quirk is."

Katashi contemplated Ochako's compliment for a few seconds before answering, "Perhaps, but a quirk is a pretty poor excuse to be someone's friend. I hate to sound cheesy, but I just want friends that are truly my friends for who I am."

Ochako immediately burst out laughing, covering her mouth to supress her amusement. "I'm sorry," she managed, "But that really is cheesy." Her laughing fit continued for nearly a minute while the young Avatar glared at her. "But I can definitely relate to you with those sentiments," the gravity girl added as she pulled herself back together.

The two continued on their way home, both hopeful for the future that laid ahead of them. Katashi looked forward to guiding this young world of powers in a better direction than his old home, to see a brighter future come to fruition by his efforts. The girl next to him looked at him with admiration, she thought the older boy to be an amazing person, but she was not ready to any more of her feelings. Already, the powers of the Avatar were changing the world for the better and take root in the flow of events.

 ** **A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter to the end and giving my project a shot. I absolutely love Avatar the Last Air-Bender and My Hero Academia, but it wasn't until this last winter that I had the sudden epiphany that these two would make an amazing cross-over. To those of you that wandered over here from my Unexpected Heroes story, this is, sadly, not part of that cross-over universe. Also I am sorry that I have not update that story in a long time, a lot happened recently and by the time I was motivated to write school had started and I really wanted to get this story out. To everyone else, check out my story Unexpected Heroes if you are interested in a Legend of Zelda based cross-over that includes several other gaming/anime franchises.****

 ** **Well, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I'm so excited about writing the next one. Before you ask. No, this is not going to be a mega harem. I won't say any more than that, but I just wanted to clear that up before I get any angry messages. Please stay tuned for the continuation of Avatar Katashi's journey to become the greatest hero and to redeem himself for his sins and his past reincarnations' sins against humanity! Reviews are very welcome as they tell me how you guys liked it and how I should continue. Follow and favourite in order to receive updates as soon as possible!****

 ** **~Grandmaster Robin~****


	2. Chapter 2: A Hero's Origin

Chapter 2

Five years before the Harmonic Convergence

West Fire Nation Capital Academy

"I can't believe you managed to pull this off, little guy!" one of the upperclassmen boys standing around twelve-year-old Katashi and his computer exclaimed.

"How did you hack the school local network system and plant that code with out being traced?" another asked, stupefied by the revelation.

"Not to mention that he created such a complex code," added a third. "The teachers'll be scramblin' to figure out how all the grades they enter automatically turn into perfect scores."

Katashi was proud of his work, though it was nothing compared to what he could potentially do, but the reaction it earned from the gang of upperclassmen that had adopted him was enough to give him pride. "I am a child genius after all, I wouldn't have been able to skip five grades If I weren't so smart."

The leader of the four other boys gave him a smack over the head, "Yeah, yeah, no need to rub it in our faces, you little shit, this only clears you for two weeks of lunch money." Katashi's proud smile turned to a disgruntled frown, he was too smart to be doing the dirty work for scum like this. But a slip up earlier that year resulted in him practically becoming the slave of this gang in order to protect his secret ability to air-bend and water-bend on top of his fire-bending. "Now that we know what you are capable of, we can get you working on some pet projects for us, like getting us into the top university and blocking the draft from selecting us."

"Oh, that is a good idea, boss, that'll keep him busy for a while," giggled the third gangster.

"We'll need to take him there as well to make sure we get good grades there as well," proposed the first, earning a round of agreement and the boss's approval.

Turning back to his computer so he could shut it off and pack it up, the unrecognised Avatar began to wonder if it was really worth trying to hide his two extra bending skills. He had to resort to less than legal means to get the money to pay off these bastards and they still took every opportunity to abuse and mock him publicly. Being a twelve-year-old kid in the last year of high school, he did not have many friends, but the few he did have were scared off when this gang of bullies began to harass him. Not to mention he also had to watch or even help them when they decided to beat up another loner underclassmen that may or may not have slighted one of the thugs.

Was it really worth staying hidden from the government? There was no doubt that the army would conscript him on sight if they knew he was possibly the next Avatar. But was it really that bad?

This was all running through his mind and flip-flopped his opinion on the options as he packed his things and drifted away from his torturers. They let him go since it was already late in they day and they had their own neglectful families to go home to and impress with bullshit. The walk home was perhaps the best part of his daily life besides sleeping, no bullies to harass him, no teachers to scold him for not being able to take a test properly, and certainly no drunken father to abuse him for some reason or another.

It was on this walk everyday that he dreamt of what he could be if he did not have to live in hiding because of his abilities. He had heard tales of the famous Avatar Aang who lived centuries ago, who saved the world and lived virtuously by doing what was right for the world. Perhaps he could escape and become like Aang, saving people regardless of what nation they hailed from, fighting against those that abused their power and tried to rob the innocent of their freedom, and standing for peace. Perhaps it was a fool's errand to try and stop the eternal conflict, but it was his duty as the Avatar to be that fool.

He arrived at the drive way to the basic, shanty of a home that he and his father had shared alone for the last ten years. It was all they could afford when his father was dishonourably discharged for his treatment of his subordinates, and they could only keep it because his father was actually good at bootlegging when he was not drinking the liquor. Surprisingly, his father was home a day early from his latest liquor run, meaning that it was going to be one hell of a miserable night.

He heard a glass bottle shatter from the kitchen the moment he stepped into the house, the man was already in a bad mood, probably had a close one with the military police. "Where the fuck have you been, boy, school was supposed to be over four hours ago!" the man slurred angrily as he stormed out into the living room, another half-full bottle in hand. Katashi knew if this noise continued too much that it would draw too much attention from the neighbours and possibly the cops. That would not bee too bad if it did not mean that he would be locked up as well for abetting a bootlegger.

"Why the fuck do you care anyway, you weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow?" he shouted back out of frustration.

"Don't you use that fucking language with me, you son of a bitch," the drunkard got in his face, his breath heavy with the reeking smell of alcohol.

"You leave mom out of this, bastard!" he snapped the snarky reply, knowing it would rile up the man.

Which it did. The poor excuse of a father took a large swig, finished the bottle and smashed it on the wall before heading back toward the kitchen, flames sparking at his hands. "You were supposed to be here to help me hide the new stash, not playing around with your stupid, non-existent friends."

"I needed to study for a big test coming up soon, so there was a study group after school," he lied as he headed to his room.

"I know you're lying, brain child. You're not going to the university anyway, because I'm not paying for that bullshit," the man sneered after him. Katashi ignored him, it looked like it was going to be a long night locked up in his room to avoid getting beat up or humiliated. "Put that brain of yours to good use and look for new sources for liquor, this one got busted after we left." A long night indeed.

He had decided, he was done with all this. He hated being pushed around by these bullies and abusers, and he wanted to see them punished for the wrongs they had done. There were many ways he could have gone about getting his freedom, but there was only one that he felt truly meted out justice against his abusers, not to mention it would also bring to light how awful the gang of bullies was towards the school population.

With his plan in mind, he set up his laptop and began put things into motion, gathering data and the evidence he had gained over the last year. A few well directed emails of videos, pictures, and his testimonies were enough to set the ball to ruin the careers of four thugs as well as serve them retribution. Tomorrow was the day. Justice would be handed out and it would be a sign of peace from his torturers. He was so excited for what was in store for the future that he would have been singing to the sky with praises if it did not mean disturbing his father.

 _~Elemental~_

They were waiting for him by the academy's front gate the next morning, dishevelled and ragged, by the looks of it his plot was already having effects. It was no surprise with the Fire Nation's adamant traditions for strict discipline, the thugs were probably hiding bruises from the punishment received at home. The email that he sent to the school administration last night received a reply an hour later stating that his evidence will be reviewed immediately and punishments would be executed swiftly. No doubt in Katashi that all four families were contacted either late the night before or early that morning to inform them of the boys' indefinite suspension pending a proper hearing for full expulsion based on the fact they were not in their uniforms nor were they entering the school grounds.

"What the fuck did you do, you little shit," the boss of the gang bellowed, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform. The sudden clash caught the attention of all the students heading to the school, stopping them in their tracks. Some even pulled out their smart phones in hope of catching something good to post to their social media.

"Now what could you be referring to, boss?" he sarcastically, letting the situation play out.

"We were suspended last night on evidence only you would have," the older teenager growled with fire sparking in his free hand. "Do you have a death wish or what, Mr. I'm-actually-an-air-bender?" The gang leader had murderous intent emanating from him, Katashi did not know how he could see the emotions but he knew he had to act before things got out of hand.

"It seems like you already know what I did," he chided with amusement.

"No shit, that's why we're going to kill you now," the boss countered. His goons behind him looked eager to join in the ensuing fight.

"So that's how you want handle this? You're already on thin ice," Katashi remarked but the bull ignored him, revving up to fight right there without a care for the consequences. Luckily for Katashi, it had rained that night so there was enough water to fight with.

With one hand, he snapped a small explosion of fire in the face of his attacker, causing him to lose his grip and drop the smaller boy. Katashi then swiped the leader's feet from under him with a swift kick and dosed him with water-bending from his other hand. "Useless when wet, eh?" he mocked. Before the other goons could attack, he knocked them back a few feet with a shove of air-bending. There was a collective gasp from the audience as they witnessed the senior gang of bullies taken out like bitches by a twelve-year-old in the matter of seconds.

As the leader began to sit up, he was stopped when Katashi collected his own fire ball to strike. "You failed this school," the young Avatar declared, "It is your duty as upperclassmen to guide and protect the underclassmen, not extort and beat them. Run before I press charges against your worthless lives."

It shocked the whole audience that such a young boy commanded such authority without flinching. Katashi could hear the work 'Avatar' whispered among the crowd, there was no doubt that news of this revelation would spread everywhere via social media. The four whipped boys took that as their cue to scramble for safety and run away in utter humiliation, leaving a crowd cheering for their liberation from the gang of thugs. Without a word, the young Avatar turned on his heel and headed through the gathered students towards the school.

The rest of the day, the school population felt at ease and took joy in their unhindered studies, but for Katashi it was filled with dread for was certain to take place eventually. On several occasions, former victims of the gang came up to him to offer thanks and other praises for his bravery. When he entered the mess hall for lunch, everyone took up the chant of the work 'Avatar' and cheered for their hero. He felt awkward being at the centre of attention, but he knew it would only cause discontent if he shoved off the student body and it would not hurt to gain some allies now that he was not isolated. Even some of the teachers looked relieved and occasionally nodded at him with thanks and approval when they met his gaze.

But as all things must, the school day came to a close and all the students began to find their way home filled with joy and prospect for a better future. However, there were soldiers armed with machine guns flanking a high-ranking officer that waited for Katashi by a sleek black car. When the officer caught sight of the Young Avatar, he motioned for the young boy to come over and Katashi complied.

"Come in, Master Katou, we have a lot to discuss," the older gentleman ordered as he opened the back door to the car. "We have ben looking for you for quite some time."

"You know, they always told us to never accept rides from strangers," he remarked snidely. "But you don't look like a creepy paedophile, so I guess I can trust you somewhat."

This earned a robust laugh from the officer, "Oho! A genius and a smartass, my colleagues are going to love this." The two took seats in the back of the car and the officer immediately pulled out a paper on a clipboard and handed it to him.

"What's this?" Katashi asked.

"Your registration for the draft. Since you are a citizen of the Fire Nation, we legally can't press you into service," the officer replied bluntly.

"At least you're honest about it," the Avatar shrugged. "But shouldn't my father be here to consent for this?"

"When we tried to notify him, but we found a drunk bootlegger, obviously breaking prohibition laws so we had to arrest him. We took your position as the Avatar as grounds to have you legally emancipated so you could make this decision on your own," he countered.

"What If I say no?" the young boy ventured.

"Well there was plenty of evidence in that house to convict an abetter," the officer threatened.

He was not surprised that the officer would resort to blackmail to get the Avatar conscripted. "Will I be helping people if I join you?"

The officer smiled seeing the success of the blackmail. "Our nation has been on the defensive for over a century now and millions of our people have died at the hands of the other nations. You would be doing our nation a great service by serving as the sword and shield of our people."

He knew it was propaganda, but he really did not have any choice, one side or another would get their hands on him. At least with this option he would not be fighting his own people. "Give me a pen then," he asked. The officer complied, and Katashi sealed his fate as a human weapon.

"Thank you very much, Avatar Katou Katashi. My name is General Cheng Yao, I will be overseeing your training and your future deployments in the field," the old man introduced himself. "Do not think that you choose the easy route, your hell has just begun, Young Avatar."

"Oh fun, pain and suffering, just what I wanted," he laughed sarcastically.

"Try your best, but even the best humour has yet to survive this war," the general warned.

With a signal from the general, the two soldiers took the front seats of the car and one started the car to drive away from the school. The city he grew up in passed by in the blink of eye, passing areas filled with both good and bad memories of his short childhood. City landscape faded into country territory as they drove away from the capital on the main highway. They pulled into the entrance of a military encampment after several hours of silent driving. It had started raining again so the training field and dirt road were muddied again and his feet squelched with each step he took out of the car. There was a warrant officer waiting out in the rain for him and he approached without a care for the rain or the mud. The man was intimidating with his surprising height and rippling muscles that spoke of years of training and exercise.

"This is Chief Warrant Officer Xiao Yang, he will take care of your initial training and officer's training," the general introduced without stepping out of the car. "I will be back in a few months to proctor you bending mastery tests. Try not to upset him too much." And just like that, the old man closed the door and the car drove off, splashing the young Avatar.

He turned to his new teacher and gave him an amused grin, "So, Mister Musc-" he did not get to finish his snarky comment as the warrant officer slammed a full-force punch into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and landing him in the mud as a breathless mess.

"Don't fucking speak until you are spoken to, shit bricks!" the officer commanded. "On your feet now! Fifty laps around the training field! Move! Move! Move!"

"But I'll be here all night trying to finish that!" he wheezed his complaint as he tried to stand on his feet. He instantly regretted backtalking his new abuser.

"Does it look like I give a damn!" the officer bellowed. "Make it seventy-five and maybe all the work will finally make your balls drop, you whelp!" Seeing no other option, Katashi started the long run that would indeed last all night through the rain, mud, and darkness as the abusive warrant officer hounded him all night to make sure he never faltered.

Thus, began the hellish eight months where he trained his body into peak physical condition, practiced drills and manoeuvres almost religiously, and mastered all the elements to the expectations of the senior command staff. When they moved him into officer's school after ten weeks of basic, they never let up on the challenges that they threw at him and they only grew more difficult as his successes piled up. He could not tell if they were trying to train him into a war dog or were trying to create the next General Iroh, but the constant abuse that he received from his instructors never helped in deciding. But he had no knowledge that it was all in preparation for the true hell that had yet to come.

 _~Elemental~_

 **Two years before the Harmonic Convergence**

 **Western Front, Earth Kingdom**

War is hell, and no one ever survives whole. Katashi knew he was not the first to think that, but could he definitely say that he understood what it meant after the two long years of fighting in the trenches. The Earth Kingdom was losing the war with out a doubt and they were losing ground faster than they could prepare a proper defence ever since the Fire Nation's renewed assault that spring. But the resistance was still bitter, like a spoiled brat fussing over the toy it stole being retaken, as Katashi observed from their tactics and from the attitudes of the prisoners they took, and they made the Fire Nation pay for every inch. The guilt of giving into the pressure of revealing who he was in order to escape his torment was eating away at him from the inside with every waking moment.

The general made true on his promise for having the Avatar serve as the sword and shield of his people, putting thirteen-year-old Katashi on the frontlines to lead the charge against their enemies. As the war dragged on, the only thing slowing the advance were the earth-benders, making them his number one priority to subdue or capture. The current orders that were assigned to him were one of those search-and-subdue missions, though something seemed off as the general shadowed him exclusively from behind the frontlines.

"What is the name of this village, Private," he commanded, wielding enough authority in his voice to frighten veteran soldiers, which was surprising for a fifteen-year-old boy. He stood on a ridgeline with his subordinate officers, looking down on his target with a battle-hardened scowl stuck on his face.

"The general added that that piece of information is of no importance, Colonel Katou," the runner bravely answered despite his fear of incurring the wrath of the infamous Avatar. "Your orders are the same without the name: find the earth-benders, subdue them, and burn the village to the ground."

Katashi winced at his orders being repeated, but the tension in his muscles eased as his Lieutenant, a young woman eight years his senior named Orikasa Fumiko, placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She had blue eyes and blond hair, but she otherwise had features similar to other people in the elemental nations. She was assigned to be his handler and to help lead his battalion, though she acted like an older sister that cared for him, giving guidance and helping him cope with the horrors of war. "There's probably only a few hundred civilians in the village, our presence should be enough to oust anyone that they're hiding. There is no need to burn the village, colonel."

Her argument was reassuring to Katashi, but the runner merely frowned before saluting and turning on his heel to run back to the camp. He thought the mission was going to continue smoothly, but the palm tree had to open his(?) wretched mouth, "The first lieutenant must be going soft over her affection for the colonel. The general's orders are final, we must attack immediately."

"Silence that hole you call a mouth, Second Lieutenant Takayama Minami," Katashi growled at the weasel of a man(?). This lieutenant was the complete opposite of Fumiko, he(?) was a gangly rat with unregulated, straw-like, black hair and soulless eyes. No one knew whether he was a man or a woman due to his effeminate features and ruthless, yet cowardly beta-male attitude. "I will take Alpha squad of Riptide company to parlay with their leaders to see if we can peacefully search for the earth-benders. The rest of you will set up checkpoints around the village and wait until further orders or you hear fighting."

"But the general's…" Minami sputtered.

"I don't give a fuck, these are my orders and you will follow them," Katashi cut him off. "Or are you forgetting your place, Lieutenant." Sparks of lightning and fire lit up his palms.

"Yes…sir," the weasel begrudgingly surrendered.

Fumiko squeezed his shoulder and leaned over to his ear, "Not this time," she whispered before pulling back. A quick dismissal followed by salutes saw the battalion move into action, going their separate ways to approach the village. Katashi, along with Fumiko and their squad, took the direct route heading towards the main avenue and the centre square, their weapons lowered to avoid provoking a conflict. Fumiko kept close to the Avatar as she usually did in effort to both support him and to protect him easily.

The village almost seemed dead with no sight of any living soul, but there were signs that the residents had quickly scrambled to hide at the sight of a Fire Nation battalion. Quick glances to the rooftops told him that there were no snipers, but he probably did not need to check with the sniper's eyes of his lieutenant that would have already spotted them. However, the moment they stepped into the square, they were confronted by dozens of militia men and women armed with bolt-action rifles and shotguns.

An elderly, bearded man approached the squad closer than his comrades and kept his rifle trained on Katashi, who obviously appeared to be the officer since he was only armed with the pistol at his hip. "We don't want any part of this war, ya hear pipsqueak," he roughly addressed first. "We barely have enough to survive and we're not housing any Earth Kingdom soldiers. Leave us in peace."

Katashi sighed, "Can we at least be civilised? Lower your weapons please, we don't want to fight either." It must have been his youthful appearance that swayed them to comply, but they still remained on edge, not that he blamed them.

"What do you want," barked the elder.

"Our intelligence says that there are earth-benders taking refuge in your village," he started his negotiation. "I know you claim that you don't, but, if you will allow it, may my squad and I peacefully search your village just in case. The rest of my battalion will stand down and you can monitor our search. I promise you that we mean you no harm and that we will do our best to avoid damaging your property. If we find no one, we will leave you in peace. If we find someone, we will arrest them and leave you in peace. I promise this."

"And If we refuse?" the elder countered.

"I do not want to raze your village, but my orders are clear," he warned, asserting his authority over the situation.

The old man's eyes softened, as did his grip on his rifle, showing his surrender. "If you keep your promise and leave us in peace afterwards, then we shall agree to your conditions," he conceded, followed by an ease of the tension in the rest of the militia. "Tell me your name at least, officer."

"I am Avatar Katou Katashi, colonel in the Imperial Army of the Fire Nation," he answered. He hid his slight amusement at the bewildered reactions of all the people that heard his title.

The old man merely smiled weakly before bowing, "It is an honour to meet you, Avatar Katashi, though I wish it could have been under better conditions."

"As do I, my good sir," he confessed.

With little left to say, the elder barked orders to some of the militia to guide the squad towards where they could start their search. Katashi first sent a runner off to the rest of the battalion with orders to stand down before re-joining Fumiko in overlooking the procedure. The civilians warily watched the soldiers' actions from a distance, never letting the invaders out of their sights nor getting too distanced from their own weapons. The old man accompanied Katashi and Fumiko every step of the way, making small talk and encouraging peaceful conversation about the village, its history, and how it survived the war autonomous from any of the Elemental Nations. Speaking so plainly put the young Avatar at ease and he could see the tension between the soldiers and militias visibly relax, even sparking small chit chat as the search continued. Though relations may have improved, Fumiko stayed within close proximity of her charge and kept a defensive watch on the civilians.

Nearly an hour into the search, a distressed cry rang out from the western side of the village followed by the shouting of a heated argument. Both soldiers and civilians in the search group were on edge with weapons in hands. Before anything could happen, a breathless villager ran around the corner of a building and stopped at the elder. "It's the soldiers, sir! They're ransacking our homes!" he wheezed.

The elder immediately turned to the Avatar, "You promised peace! You promised your battalion would stand down!" he accused, already the cracks of gunshots rang out in the late evening sky.

"I did order them…" he tried to explain as he raised his left hand into snapping position while reaching for his holster with his right.

The elder would not have his answer, raising his rifle at Katashi, but Fumiko was quicker and shot the old man square in the chest without asking questions. One of the younger civilians was first to react, aiming his rifle at the closest soldier, but the Avatar quickly shocked him with a lethal voltage of lightning. An explosion erupted in the background as everyone scattered for cover when the bullets and fire started flying. Fumiko dragged her charge behind a resting car before engaging in the firefight.

"That weasel, Takayama! This is his doing!" Katashi growled as he pulled out his pistol, getting a silent nod from his lieutenant. "If we can reach him, we can stop this massacre."

"We can try, colonel, but your safety is my top priority," Fumiko declared between shots. A full-fledged battle was underway with constant gunfire filling the air along with the billowing clouds of smoke from burning homes.

With a signal to his lieutenant, the Avatar crept out quickly from behind his cover with her following closely to cover his back. A militia sprang out from behind a corner but fell quickly to a shot from the Avatar. The two made quick work of sneaking through the streets of the burning village, avoiding firefights every few minutes. Katashi's stomach twisted as he knew there was no hope of saving the village physically, but at least he could save as many people as he could.

They finally made it to the centre of the town again to find the traitorous weasel ordering the execution of civilian men, women and children with a maniacal grin on his face as the buildings around the burned. The square was filled with countless bodies of both civilians and soldiers, filling the Avatar's gut with rage and grief ready to explode.

"You traitorous bastard, what is the meaning of this?!" he furiously demanded before the execution was carried out. "My orders were to stand down, what the fuck are you doing?!"

Minami slyly grinned in manner that disgusted Katashi, "When the general heard that you were not going to attack, he issued new orders directly to me. You should be glad he did not come here directly to handle the situation."

"We are soldiers, we do not attack innocent civilians, nor do we break peace agreements," he bellowed at the weasel with fire and lightning sparking in his hands, causing a brief twinge of fear in his(?) eyes.

"Now where is the fun in that, colonel," Minami countered, his(?) voice full of insanity.

"You sick fuck!" Katashi accused.

The weasel began to cackle slightly, but did not make it far before a snap of the Avatar's fingers engulfed the mad lieutenant in pure white flames. All the people in the square look on in shock as the young boy turned the insane weasel into a pile of ashes almost instantly, but none could say they felt bad for the person that offended the Avatar.

The Avatar was breathing heavily with rage, sparks flying from his palms and his eyes glowing with hatred. People began to back away in fear of what was probably going to happen next, but Fumiko calmly approached Katashi and wrapped her arms around him to restrain him. "Get a hold of yourself, Katashi, don't lose yourself here. Fight the wrath within you, it will only hurt more innocents and destroy who you are."

Her words worked like magic as the boy's tense body slackened and a sob made its way from his throat. The next few minutes was filled with his sobbing as Fumiko sat him down and held him with calming arms and soothing words. The fires continued to rage on but the fighting died down quickly as runners spread the word of the ceasefire, and foes put aside their conflict in order to rescue civilians from the flames.

His weeping slowly came to an end as he wiped away his tears and composed himself back to normal. "Come on, Fumiko," he ordered weakly as he stood up again, "We have work to do." She nodded in agreement and accepted his hand to help her onto her feet.

~Elemental~

It took them a few hours to get the fire under control, but there was nothing left for the civilians to return to other than a single barn that stood untouched on the outskirts of the village. So, Katashi ordered his battalion to assist the few dozen surviving civilians in collecting the dead and bury them, a necessary duty that lasted into the night and was finished by the crack of dawn. With no where left for them to go, he then allowed them to accompany the soldiers back to the army's camp a few kilometres away.

At the camp, the Avatar tasked Fumiko with processing the refugees and getting an escort to take them to the nearest refugee camp, then went to confront the general in his tent. The guards let him in without hindrance and he found the old soldier looking over some files at his mobile desk.

"Ah, Colonel Katou, I see that you were successful and that my orders got through to you from Second Lieutenant Takayama," the general greeted the silent boy, gesturing him to take a seat but was ignored. "Where is Takayama now? He was to report to me with you."

"He was killed in action by the militia," Katashi growled the lie.

The general sighed, seeing through the lie, "There's no need to lie to me, I can see the murder in your eyes, you killed him. You not only have the eyes of a killer, but eyes of a murderer as well. Don't worry, a madman such as himself was going to meet the same fate eventually." The old man stood up and walked around to the Avatar, whistling a quick signal. "I also received some disturbing news from one of my runners," he started as two soldiers barged in dragging in a struggling Fumiko, gagged to keep her silent.

"Why did you bring her here like this?" Katashi demanded, but he already had a feeling what the answer was.

"I was informed that the beautiful First Lieutenant Orikasa Kumiko here was influencing you to go against my orders and had seduced you with her charms," the general accused and Fumiko screamed her muffled protests. "Now, we can't have the Avatar being tainted and manipulated by such a dirty whore preying on a child."

"Those are lies, she's done nothing of the sort! Let her go! Exile her if you want to keep her away from me, just don't hurt her!" he protested desperately, tears welling up in his eyes. Fumiko continued to struggle and protest with tears in her own eyes.

"You see? She has you wrapped around her fingers. That's why this must be ended now," the general insisted and, without warning, drew his pistol and shot her in the face.

Katashi's heart froze in horror as he watched the lifeless and mangled body of the one person he loved collapse to the ground. He cried and attempted to rush to her side but was knocked to the ground as the general punched him straight in the face, breaking his nose, and the butt of a rifle from one of the soldiers hit him again to keep him down. One of the soldiers then picked him up and threw him over their shoulder, but he kept his red and tearing eyes on Fumiko's body.

"You have a few days to rest and clear your mind of this rubbish, then we will move out to our next engagement," the general ordered as he wiped the blood that had spattered all over him. "Don't make me use drastic measure to make you comply. Dismissed."

The soldier carrying Katashi then left the tent and walked down the camp roads to the Avatar's residence that was more heavily guarded than ever before. He was thrown onto his bed after his weapon was confiscated and left alone in the dark, so he cried and cried for hours until there was nothing left and he passed out into empty slumber.

But his slumber was not as empty as he thought it would be. He opened his eyes to a dark dreamscape that was only lit up by the looming white presence in front him; he feared what it might have been, but did not have any energy to act on that fear.

"Be at peace, my child, you have nothing to fear from me, for I am one with you," the soothing feminine voice addressed him.

"How can I trust anything that anyone says?" he managed to spit in hatred. "Maybe you're my conscious here to torture me for the rest of my pointless life."

"I know you are hurt, and I will try my best to heal your soul, but you must persevere if we are to change anything," the voice reassured. "My name is Raava and I am the reason you have this power, and I am the reason you have suffered so much. You know this to be truth, and I am so sorry for everything that has happened."

Strangely, he calmed somewhat, "Why is this the first time that you have come to me?" he asked.

"This is the first time that you have truly cleared your mind and opened yourself to me," she answered.

"And what do you mean by change things?" he asked a second question.

The presence chuckled lightly, "You are curious, that is good. But this is a serious matter," she changed her tone. "I am sure you will agree with me that this world is a rotten and corrupt one. Almost all light of goodness has been snuffed." He nodded in silent agreement with tears threatening to well up. "This world is lost, it has abused my power and those that represent me. If we do not act now, the spirit realm will be lost and corrupted as well, which will assure our complete annihilation."

"What do you suggest that we do to stop this?" he inquired.

"There is nothing we can do to stop the death of this world, it is already lost," she repeated sorrowfully. "But we can save another world and the spirit realm if we escape from this world."

"There is no time to be wasted then," Katashi insisted.

 **A/N: This chapter was originally split up into two chapters to cover his backstory but a review advised me to combine them and I had to agree that he was right. this was updated right before I published the new chapter four. I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to follow/favourite the story if you liked it. Leave a review to let me know how you felt about it. Until next time,**

 **~Grandmaster Robin~**


	3. Chapter 3: Initial tests

Chapter 3

 **Present Day**

Every waking moment of the next week was one of stress and anxiety for Katashi and Ochako as they desperately waited for the letters that contained their acceptance or rejection to U.A. Her parents eventually threw them out of the apartment to go train or anything really that would take their minds off the pending judgment of their futures. So Katashi took his friend to the beach where he had met Izuku to train every day, mostly aiming to get the gravity girl into fighting condition.

Since he started earning money through his anonymous contracts to write codes, Katashi took on grocery shopping for the Uraraka family to pay them back for their hospitality, and he learned from Ochako never to pass up the opportunity for a good sale. It still amazed him how abundant and unrestricted food was in this world despite how large the population was and all the wars he read about in the news. One day on his way to the local grocer, he was going over what to buy with his budget in his mind when he ran right into the pink heroine that had been lingering in his mind for the last six days since the exam.

"Eep!" she chirped the startled noise as the distracted Avatar bumped into her backside. "Watc- wait, it's you, Katou-san!"

"I'm sorry for being distracted!" he gave a deep bow with an embarrassed blush.

Mina huffed, annoyed by her acquaintance's actions, though she could probably let it go after how rudely she ran away from him in the aftermath of the exam rather than stick around to get his number like she wanted. "For someone who's not Japanese, you certainly know how to be respectful and formal like one," she observed, "But you can be more casual and less apologetic around me, please."

This caught the young Avatar off guard, she was being very friendly for only meeting him twice now, one of which resulted in the both of them falling into an awkward position. "Well, I really must apologise for how things ended up last time, Ashido-san, you looked upset by what happened, and it was my fault," He confessed, resisting the urge to bow again.

"It's fine really, and it wasn't that bad of a position to be in," she smirked to hide her flushing cheeks, and Katashi was definitely not prepared for such a response. "Besides, I would have reacted very differently had it not been for all the stress built up by the exam. It was on hell of a mess, I don't know how the school, even one as prestigious as U.A., can get away with an exam as dangerous as that." He had to agree with those sentiments, and he had been suspicious of what the administration was up to since the exam. She then pulled the blushing mess that was Katashi aside to sit at a bench. "So, what has you out here in the commercial district, my multi-talented friend?"

"I could ask you the same, Ashido-san," he managed after pulling himself back together.

"Ashido-chan, if you please, we're definitely pretty close after everything that happened," Mina corrected. "I was on my way home from the arcade, spent two hours playing Just Dance. Now, what about you?"

"Er, I was on my way to the grocer, I do the shopping for Uraraka-chan and her family to pay them back for letting me stay with them," he explained.

"Oh, that's the brunette girl that was with you during the exam orientation?" she recalled, now pink girl wanted to have some fun. "Judging by how she was looking at you, she must have been heartbroken when she heard how far we got together after the exam."

Katashi froze at the statement, exposing how deep Mina hit him, "That's actually one of the details that I left out when I told her about our exam."

"Oh you sly dog!" Mina clapped him on the back. "You want her too! Don't worry, I can be fair and would be willing to share, she just needs to catch up to me!"

The young Avatar was on the verge of exploding with embarrassment, but he was ready to strike back, "More like you have to catch up to her, we're already living together!"

The acid quirk user mockingly gasped in fake surprise, "She truly has me beat, but this is not over! Wanna head back to my place and seal the deal? That'll one-up her for a while," she joked, winning the war in embarrassing each other. She had gotten the best of him and he practically curled up trying to hide his red face, he could not believe that she would go that far.

 _The life of a soldier did not prepare me for any of this_ , his scrambled mind thought. However, her forwardness and playfulness were aspects of her personality that he liked.

"Well, I better be heading home and you have shopping to do," Mina moved on, still laughing to hide her dark pink cheeks. "Can I have your number? That'll make it easier for us to hang out and keep in touch rather than randomly meeting on the street." He silently obliged, still too embarrassed to say anything. "It was good to see you again. I hope we get to go to school together soon, Kata-kun!" and she was gone with a flirtatious smile.

Half an hour later while he was shopping for ingredients, his phone buzzed with a text message, unsurprisingly from an unknown number. It stated that it was from Mina and that she hoped that the shopping was going well followed by a little yellow face with wide grin. He smiled silently before replying that he was finding everything and added his own smiley face.

He was happy just to have genuine friends for the first time in his life, but there was something different about his feelings that he had for the two girls, he felt complemented by both of them. Eventually he would have to meditate on it and consult Raava about such feelings, though she might just mock him before telling him to find out on his own. Either way, he would have to properly introduce the two girls to see how things would flow.

 _~Elemental~_

Katashi was in the middle of writing a complex code the following day when Ochako sat next to him and leaned up against his right side. She was still warm from the shower she took after their morning training and her damp hair stuck to his shoulder. "Today is the day that letters come in," she started, "No matter if one or both of us get rejected, can we stay friends? You have come to mean a lot to me, and you have inspired me to do better and be better with all that you have done for me and my family." Her sudden boldness was surprising despite her normal straightforward nature.

"It's what I can do to repay you for not leaving me in that alley, and I want to see you succeed as hero," he countered, still focused on his coding. "Heavens knows that the world needs heroes as kind and cheerful as you." He did not need to look over at her face to know that her face was flushing red.

"But you know my reasons, how is it heroic to save people for money?" she asked, looking up to him.

"There's nothing wrong with trying to improve your living conditions, as long as you work hard then you deserve the rewards," he answered, "Besides, it would be no different than being in law enforcement, fire rescue, or being a doctor, you just have a more dangerous job." Tensions were high with the anticipation for their results that could arrive at any minute and it clearly was eating away at Ochako's confidence. Katashi definitely felt the pressure weighing down on himself as well, more so than when he had taken the written portion of the exam.

"You always seem to know the answer to every problem," the gravity girl observed.

"Try meditating, it will help you focus your mind and clear it of distracting thoughts, that's how I usually resolve problems." Ever since his first meeting with Raava, he had used a method meditating she taught him so he could clear his mind for more logical judgments and to develop his connection to the Avatar State. It was thanks to this meditation method that he was able to recompose himself following Fumiko's murder, even though he still spent restless nights crying over memory on a few occasions.

"So, a clear mind is all I need," she pondered aloud, "Though it probably won't help that much with how poor my performance was in comparison to yours."

"I've been meditating every night to help with my anxieties over the exam results, once you have cleared yourself of anxieties and stopped worrying about others you'll open up to greater possibilities," Katashi added, taking a moment to look curiously at his friend. He really did like her, she was cheerful and pure in her intentions of being a hero despite her cover for doing it for the money. It disheartened him that a promising hero like Ochako felt discouraged by her low self-opinion and how she buried it deep within herself when she was around others.

The gravity girl suddenly sat up straight and gave him a playful glare, "There you go again, knowing exactly what to say like you have a script or something."

"Well, I did have two amazing teachers that taught me a lot about life. We all have to learn somewhere because bumbling about on our own can only get us so far," he countered before he turned back to his computer.

"I'm starting to think you should be a philosopher rather than a hero," she jabbed him in the stomach lightly, causing a heated poke war to ensue.

It was at that moment that the door to the apartment burst open and Ochako's mother rushed in with a letter in her hands, almost like she was cradling a baby. She looked like she was about to explode with excitement, meaning it must have been the exam results that finally came in the mail. "It's here! It's here!" she chirped with overwhelming enthusiasm.

Both the teens were on their feet instantly as the mother reached them to deliver the prized message. "It's addressed to both of us," Katashi noted with confusion.

"They must have realised that we had the same address and decided to put our results together," the gravity girl reasoned. And without further questioning, Ochako took the envelope and ripped it open, letting a small black disc fall onto the coffee table.

A projection popped up into the air with an image of an overly buff man in an ugly yellow suit with thin black stripes taking up most of the screen. Besides his over the top buff physique, his hair was an even more odd trait that drew most of his attention; perfectly blond and styled to stand up like bunny ears. Katashi instantly recognized the man from the many images and videos he found when he had researched the best heroes in this world: the number one pro hero, All Might.

"They live together? How bold of them at their age. And they both passed to make it into my class? That means we can make one acceptance recording for them," the man spoke in a boisterous voice towards somewhere off camera. His face suddenly turned to one of shock, probably because of something the cameraman had said. "What do you mean you already started recording?!" He then turned back to the camera with a strangely composed grin, "Well, I guess I spoiled the surprise for you two. Young Uraraka Ochako and Young Katou Katashi, you both have passed the U.A. Entrance Exam with flying colours and have landed yourselves in my class. Yes, you heard me correctly, the number one pro hero, All Might, will guide you two on your paths to becoming pro heroes."

Katashi could not produce any words to express how happy he was with this news, but Mrs. Uraraka made up for him with the amount of cheering she was doing. Ochako did her own little dance to show her excitement for a few minutes before jumping the Young Avatar in a tight embrace, reaching up and planting a quick kiss on his cheek. Realising what she had just done, the gravity girl relinquished her grip on the older boy and proceeded to bow repeatedly faster than he could comprehend while babbling some sort of apology. This caused another round of squealing cheers from the matriarch of the house.

Katashi did not care about embarrassing it was, though he definitely liked the kiss and hug, he was just so happy that he was one step closer to his goal and he was on that path with one of his best friends. He stopped the flurry of bows by taking Ochako into a bear hug and joining in on the cheering. It was probably going to be a late night of celebrating, because who could put a thought to work on such a joyous occasion.

All Might was an amazing stage performer knowing to give a few moments of celebration in the recording before continuing. "Yes! This is a wonderful time to celebrate as the future of two promising heroes shines bright with the start of your journey!" the pro hero lauded with booming voice. "You both have reason to be proud of your accomplishment, scoring excellent grades on the written portion and both ranking in the top five of the practical portion." He paused to let that information sink in with the shock of the surprise. "Young Katou took first place in the practical with seventy-six villain points and twenty-five rescue points, while Young Uraraka took fifth place with twenty-eight villain points and forty-five rescue points. And you might have guessed it already, but there was a secondary scoring system judged by the heroism you show on the battlefield. The two of you will be joining my class, Class 1-A, So I personally welcome you to your hero academia!"

The recording cut out with one last look at the number one pro hero as he signed off his performance of an acceptance letter. The living room was silent as the three gleefully grinned to each other, too stunned to decide what they should do next. Katashi and Ochako both blushed profusely due to the passion for each other, knowing that Mrs. Uraraka was going to embarrass the hell out of them once Mr. Uraraka returned from work.

 _~Elemental~_

Katashi and Ochako walked closely together in their brand new U.A. emblazoned uniforms as they made their way through the entrance gate of the aforementioned school. As they passed through the school foyer and halls, the Young Avatar eagerly watched all the milling students to see all varying quirks and guess their capabilities. It amazed him still that quirks could be so different and unite the people at the same time, though he knew better than to believe that this was all there was to it. He sadly expected something to occur eventually to prove him right, that there was something deeper that was rotten and undermining the benevolent purpose of quirks.

Those thoughts immediately left his mind as he opened the to Class 1-A, only to be greeted by Midoriya Izuku as he watched a heated argument between two other students: the tall, engine-legged boy with black hair and glasses, and a fierce-looking boy with wild blond hair. They must have entered at the tail end of the argument and Izuku must have arrived seconds ago because the boy with glasses detached himself from the argument when he took notice of their presence.

He started to introduce himself to Izuku but stopped when he realised that his introduction had probably already been heard. "Midoriya, you… you perceived the true nature of that practical exam while I did not. I misjudged you. I hate to admit it, but you were the superior candidate," he acted out his lamentation in complete seriousness. _How could someone be so serious about such a ridiculous topic and act out that seriousness without faking the attitude?_ He wondered.

"So, what's going on between you and scruffy over there?" he nodded in the direction of the wild haired boy, earning a growl from him.

"Oh, nothing too problematic, he was just disrespecting school property," the glasses kid explained. "I don't think we've met before, my name is Ida Tenya, I'm from Somei private academy. What about you?"

By this point, Katashi pretty much had his back story memorised along with false details to cover up any holes. "Katou Katashi, I went to public school up in Otaru Prefecture," he answered calmly, not expecting the reaction it would receive.

"You mean the Katou Katashi that took first place in the practical exam with one hundred and one total points, beating the school's all-time record?" Tenya asked in his over-expressive shock.

"Yeah, I guess so, though I didn't know that I broke any records. Please don't get too crazy with blowing my score out of proportion, we all did pretty great to get into this school," he attempted to diffuse the situation. Tenya looked like he was on the verge of a rant of questions, the wild hair boy looked ready to kill Katashi with his murderous glare, Izuku was busy blushing and eyeing Ochako who paid him no mind, and several other students were attracted to the commotion by the mention of the name of the famous first place student, including a certain pink heroine. A grinning Mina was overtly waving at the young Avatar from her desk with such enthusiasm that she probably could have start flying if she were using both arms.

Any further action was cut off as the door behind them suddenly slid open again to reveal a giant orange caterpillar with a man's greasy and unkempt face that was sucking on an apple sauce pouch. A hand reached out of the sleeping bag to take away the pouch, "Go somewhere else if you are looking for a social get together," his unenergetic voice scolded the group of students. He then unzipped the bag and stepped out, showing his true form to be a tall, lanky man with messy shoulder length hair that looked like he just rolled out of bed, which he probably did considering the sleeping bag. The group of students near the door looked at the strange man in shock of his sudden and strange appearance, and Katashi could not tell whose reaction was the best.

Even if he had been a more impressive teacher, the young avatar would still not have trusted an authoritative adult farther than a cabbage cart could go without being smashed by an errant air-bender. The man's disturbing demeanour only added to Katashi's suspicion of what the man could be scheming behind his cover motives for teaching. How could such a creep be pro hero as well as a teacher when he looked like the law required him to stay five hundred feet away from schools at all times. He shouldn't put too much thought in how much he distrusted his teacher, he distrusted all of those in control, even those who seemed beyond reproach in the public eye, like All Might. Rather, he should stay focused on completing his schooling while keeping an eye on the teachers, he wanted to make sure his friends and fellow students stayed out of the crossfire of any political scheme.

The teacher took his place at the class's lecturing lectern while the standing students found open seating; Izuku took a front row seat between a cute girl with frog-like features a haughty blond boy, Tenya sat curtly on the other side of the frog girl, and Ochako took the last front seat next to the engine boy. The gravity girl sorrowfully whispered an apology to Katashi as he walked over to the last available seat in the back between Mina and a beautiful, mature-looking girl with a wild, black ponytail. Mina seemed thrilled to sit next to Katashi as she gave her brilliant grin towards him and patted the empty seat next to her with excitement.

"It took you ten seconds to sort out yourselves and get quiet," the teacher started as soon as the Avatar sat down, "Time is a precious resource and it's irrational for you lot to waste it." He couldn't argue with the man's logic, but it still was a bit harsh for the first day of class. "I'm your homeroom teacher Aizawa Shota. Pleased to meet you." The pleasant greeting did not sound right coming from the grungy teacher, but no one cared as surprise briefly rippled through out the class. "Quickly now, change into your gym uniforms and head out to the grounds," he demonstrated by pulling out an extra set of the standard uniforms from his sleeping bag.

The girls and boys separated out so that they could take turns to change in the classroom. When it came to his turn, Katashi tried to change as quickly as possibly to hide his numerous battle scars, but he could feel the gazes from his male classmates as they caught sight of the horrifying canvas of mutilated skin. "What happened to you, Katou-san?" Tenya ventured with a voice full of concern.

"Power like mine usually comes with unwanted attention," he answered, signalling that he did not want to discuss it. It hurt Ochako when he told her the same answer, so he could only guess that it would have similar results with his classmates as they all grew closer. The boy with the scarred eye and dual coloured red-white hair seemed to make an expression of sympathy, which was not surprising judged on his own burn mark.

The boys tried to distract themselves with small talk as they finished and followed the girls out to the training fields, but the young Avatar had no doubt that rumours would soon be spreading like wildfires. A short conversation between Shota and Ochako about their class skipping the entrance ceremony reaffirmed that the teacher did not care for formalities nor anything else that wasted time.

Shota began to list off different fitness tests that seemed pretty basic and Katashi knew that he could score well above average on them without his powers, but what came next was a surprise. "Bakugo, I want you to throw the softball. You can use your quirk, just don't leave the circle," he instructed as he tossed the test ball to the fierce-looking blond that approached the circle. "Give it all you got."

"Awesome," the boy muttered as he wound up for the pitch. "Die!" he roared as he unleashed his assault. In the split second that the ball began to leave his hand as he threw with all his might, a loud boom ripped through the air with an explosion that erupted from his hand, propelling the ball farther than naturally possible. The teacher showed his reader that supplied a distance of seven-hundred-and-five-point-two metres, adding to the chorus of amazement.

"It's important for us to know our limits. That's the first rational step in finding out what kind of heroes you're going to be," Shota began, his voiced filled with a little enthusiasm for once. "You think the next three years here are going to be all fun and games? Well, let's get serious now. The student with the lowest score across all eight tests will be judged hopeless… and expelled."

Such a statement was met with expected response of protests and cries of unfairness; Katashi felt the same as everyone else, but he could not help but agree with his teacher's logic. Mina, who had stuck close to him since they left the building, suddenly grasped his wrist with a muffled cry. He could feel fearful chakra emanating from the pink heroine, more so than the others.

"There is no place in the world where you can't find unfairness, but it's the job of heroes to correct that unfairness. The next three years will be hell for you, so U.A. will throw you through the wringer if you expected anything less," Shota continued his lecture, his voice reaching the pinnacle of emotion. "That's plus ultra! So, use everything you got to make it to the top!" Despite the teacher's appearance, Katashi was impressed by how inspiring the speech was, and he could feel the fear in Mina and their classmates fade into determination.

 _~Elemental~_

All the events were blood-pumping and fast-paced with the air filled with the same competitiveness as the entrance exam. No one held back given what was at stake, with the exception of Izuku, but the young Avatar could tell that something was up with his friend. Katashi did exceptionally well in the tests compared to others, winning the standing long jump and the side-to-side stepping, while scoring second in the fifty-metre dash behind Tenya with three point fifty seconds.

Watching his other classmates complete the tasks, he had no doubt that the exam had truly picked out the best students as they all found ways to use theirs quirks to improve their capabilities. Mina surprised him with an exceptional fifty metre dash score, using her acid quirk to quickly slide across the track. A kid with several tentacle-like arms crushed the grip strength test using several of his tentacles to smash out an impossible score, by normal standards. When it came to the softball throw for every one else at the end of the examination, Ochako took the gold using her gravity quirk to throw the ball for an infinite distance. Katashi gave her a high-five on his way up to take the test, smiling humorously to garner her embarrassment.

Shota threw him a softball the moment he stepped into the ring without much care if he was paying any attention. Catching it with ease, the young Avatar took a brief moment to consider how he would go about completing this test. Like all his previous tests, he thought that only his fire-bending and air-bending would prove to be of any use and decided to go with fire-bending even if it looked similar to Bakugo's performance. As he began to wind up for the pitch, he felt a leering gaze trying to ensnare his powers, and a quick glance over his shoulder in its direction revealed it to be from Shota with his now blood-red eyes. The strange teacher was definitely up to something.

The cheering from Mina and Ochako drew him back into reality as he pulled back his arm and threw the ball with everything he had, giving it an explosion of his own at the very last second. Watching it soar far and high like Bakugo's, Katashi noticed his teacher's silent expression of shock along with the rest of the class's exhibition of amazement at the spectacular performance. Aizawa quickly corrected his gaping face and unenergetically read off his score of seven-hundred-and-two-point-three metres.

"I knew you would pull something cool off like that," Mina cheerfully clapped him on the back as he returned to the crowd. "I don't think anyone had a chance of beating Uraraka-san's infinite score, so taking third place is a damn good job."

"Thanks, Mina-chan, though I wonder if I could have gotten a better score if had used the wind instead of fire to propel the ball," he contemplated aloud.

"Either way, you would have had one of the best scores," Ochako added in as she moved next to him, her face constituted with her normal optimistically bold demeanour as well as a light blush. "I didn't even throw as hard as you did, I got my score because of my quirk."

Katashi raised an eyebrow in question, "And where is the problem in that? Aizawa-sensei told us to go all out and use our quirks."

"He has a point," Mina remarked, leaning against the young Avatar's shoulder. She did not get to elaborate any further as their teacher called up the last contestant to the circle: Izuku Midoriya.

Katashi kept an eye on Shota, waiting to see if the creep would try something to sabotage the green-haired hero. Sure enough, Izuku wound up his pitch like everyone and looked like he was preparing to ignite his quirk to launch the ball. The young Avatar never really found out what his friend's quirk was, but, judged on the bulging muscles and lines of light spiderwebbing across his arm, he could guess it had something to do with super strength. If Izuku had super strength, then why had he been struggling with moving all that trash before the entrance exam? A question to be solved at another time when he could do a proper investigation into the younger boy's past and his relationship to All Might, who must have been than buff man he met at the beach.

As soon as the kid began to unleash his pitch, the spiderweb of light disappeared from his arm and no quirk activated, letting the ball fly half-heartedly and land less than fifty metres away. What no one else except Katashi noticed were Shota's sudden blood-red eyes and his leering gaze that could be felt even though it was not directed at the Avatar. He had cancelled Izuku's quirk and had tried to do the same to him, except his Avatar powers did not work the same as quirks.

The poor boy looked horrified, downright distraught, that his quirk did not work when he summoned it, and Ochako gave a simultaneous gasp of shock at the results. Some students paid little attention to the poor performance while others looked gleeful that someone was taking a fall to cover their own underwhelming performances, and Bakugo even scoffed with laughter at the victim. Katashi could tell there was a tense relationship between the two. He would have to watch in case something exploded between the two, he owed that much to Izuku being his friend.

"I erased your quirk," Shota announced the beginning of his lecture aimed at Izuku. "Your performance at the entrance exam was ridiculous and pathetic. In my honest judgment, the same I gave in the school's evaluation of your test, it was completely irrational to accept someone like you into the school." The teacher was on a roll of derisive judgements, to say the least, and he had kicked up some discussion among the other students, including the mention of his pro hero name being 'Eraser Head.'

As much as Katashi wanted to jump to his friend's defence, he lacked enough information about how he did in the entrance exam to provide a proper defence in the scrutinising gaze of the creep. The young Avatar suddenly caught sight of a yellow suited person in the far corner of his vision. A quick glance over his shoulder and a check of the massive amount of chakra radiating from the location informed him that it must have been All Might peeking out from around the corner of the building to watch the students test. The man's gaze was fixated on Izuku, confirming Katashi's suspicions that something connected the two.

"I noticed that your control over your quirk is pathetic and you would just incapacitate yourself again by using it in this test," the creepy teacher continued as he approached the boy. "You planned on someone helping you out afterwards," he accused, his blood-red gaze narrowing on his victim. Izuku tried to stammer an excuse, but the teacher silenced him by throwing out the end of the cloth bands, which loosely hung on him like a scarf, and controlling it to wrap around the boy's stomach. "Your plan would only cause more problems for those around. You've got the same reckless streak as a certain hot-blooded hero from a few years ago but are completely useless after saving one person You cannot become a hero with such a self-detrimental power and a selfish mindset."

Everyone was silent in the wake Aizawa's critical analysis of the young hero, not wanting to break the tension nor rub any salt in Izuku's wounds. Katashi guessed that this must be a learning challenge: if Izuku could not overcome such a harsh critique, then there was no point in him continuing. "You've got your quirk back… give it another go so we can get this over with," the teacher instructed with his guise softened and the cloth bands withdrawn. He suddenly tilted his head back with opened eyes, pulled out a bottle, and squeezed out some eye drops into the irritated oculi.

As Izuku prepared for another pitch, Ochako switched between casting a concerned glance at the green-haired boy and giving a pleading look to the older Avatar. Katashi had forgotten that he was almost three years older than some of his classmates with his birthday coming in May, definitely looked the part, so it was still surprising that Ochako along with some of the other students looked at him with reverent attitudes and expectations of authority after less than a day of class. "Don't worry Ochako-chan, Midoriya-kun is smart to get out of the predicament that he's in."

"Perhaps, but he definitely looks rattled by what Aizawa-sensei said," Mina commented, still leaning against Katashi's shoulder. "He won't last another day here if he can't get over it." Despite her free-spirited nature and socialite character, Mina hid a very intelligent side to her that Katashi adored and had exposed while texting her.

"It also seems that he gave Midoriya-kun instructions hidden in his critique," Tenya, who had joined the group, observed while rubbing his non-existent facial hair, "like he was trying to break him down, but provide something to reconstitute himself."

Izuku suddenly wound up for the pitch, but his quirk appeared to focus on his index finger instead of his whole arm. Katashi smiled, _he figured out how to overcome his problem, for now at least_. As he unleashed the pitch, the ball shot out off his index finger like a bullet out of a gun, arcing into to the distance in the same fashion as Bakugo's and Katashi's performances. Seven-hundred-and-five-point-three metres, red the measurer.

Everyone stood both shocked and amazed by Izuku's superb performance, the teacher included, though it was mixed with pride as well. The green-haired hero grimaced back at Aizawa with pained triumph charging his face as he clutched the destroyed index finger on his right hand, which only Aizawa, Tenya, Tsuyu the frog girl, and Katashi noticed. "Everyone can go back to class and get changed, class is dismissed for the rest of the day," Shota announced with surprising cheerfulness. "And could someone please escort Midoriya-Kun to the nurse's office?"

A guttural growl drew Katashi's attention to a livid Bakugo nearby, glaring at Izuku with murderous intent and small explosions lighting up his palms. Izuku's success had clearly upset the beast of a boy, practically pushing him over the edge of sanity. The Avatar had to act quickly before the boy attacked. With a subtle swipe of his hand, he took control of the explosions and killed them, then manipulated the earth beneath Bakugo's feet to trap him. Wild eyes immediately fixated on the Avatar but were met by a battle born scowl that made him recoil somehow. "Cool you're fucking jets," Katashi clearly mouthed, earning a begrudged nod.

"What about the expulsion?" a boy with electric styled and coloured hair complained on behalf of the rest of the class.

"Oh that?" the teacher mused suspiciously. "That was a lie. It was a rational deception to bring out the best in you." The entire class, except Yaoyorozu Momo the wild ponytail girl, Bakugo, and Katashi, exploded in frustration and anger. Shota merely grinned his creepy smile as the students protested.

"Of course it was a lie. It didn't take much to figure that out," Momo scolded the other students. The young Avatar had come to the same conclusion early in the tests but had decided to withhold the truth in order to let the tests serve their purpose.

Katashi released Bakugo as everyone began to disperse and retreat to the school building, but before he could approach Izuku to offer his assistance, Tsuyu reached him first to do the same. He let the two go, thinking it would be a good opportunity for the green-haired hero to make a new friend on his first day.

"Katou Katashi!" Aizawa called the boy before he could join his group of friends.

"Yes, Sensei?" he answered.

"I need to see you in my office once you're changed," the creepy man instructed, "Now go."

 _~Elemental~_

After they all changed, Katashi told his group of friends to go on home without him since he had a meeting with their homeroom teacher. Ochako tried to protest, but he reassured her that he would be home as soon as possible so they could work on personal study. The gravity girl grudgingly accepted and gathered her things to join the group of Tenya, Izuku, and Tsuyu heading for the school's entrance. What concerned Katashi was that Mina was nowhere to be seen as he headed out to find Aizawa's office.

His mind wandered to contemplating over the composition of Class 1-A, and how they all seemed like promising heroes. He could tell that he had been put in a class of exceptional classmates after just one day of session, with various quirks and personalities that he got some impressions of in his brief observance of everyone. There was the cute, cheerful, and honest gravity girl, Uraraka Ochako; the vivacious, intelligent, and lovely acidic heroine, Ashido Mina; the earnest, intelligent, and serious engine hero, Iida Tenya; the timid, polite, and over-expressive super strength hero, Midoriya Izuku; the straightforward, laid-back, and helpful frog heroine, Asui Tsuyu; the arrogant, brutal, and aggressive explosion hero, Bakugo Katsuki; the boisterous, out-going, and honest hardening hero, Kirishima Eijiro; and the level-headed, intelligent, and dedicated creation heroine, Yaoyorozu Momo, were the only ones that Katashi could gather any substantial impressions on in the first session. For the most part, he was probably too distracted by these students to learn anything about the others, with the exception of Todoroki Shoto, who was all around aloof and distant from everyone else. But it was only the first day of school, so there was plenty of time to interact with everyone and come together as a class. With the exception of Bakugo and Todoroki, everyone acted kindly and friendly to each other, even showing support their goals of becoming pro heroes. It was also evident that he was gathering a social group around himself, including Ochako, Mina, and Izuku, with Tsuyu and Tenya being drawn in by Izuku.

Katashi knocked politely as he arrived at his destination. "Enter," Aizawa's unenergetic voice commanded from inside. He opened the door, entered, and closed it behind him to find his homeroom teacher looking over lesson plans on his desk.

He knew there was no point in expecting the teacher to ask him to sit, so he jumped directly into the meeting, "You wanted to see me, sensei?"

As expected, Shota did not bother with any formalities, "There's something different about you, Katou. What the hell are you?" he demanded curtly. "You noticed my attempt to erase your quirk and Izuku's with some sort of precognitive sense and you even stopped me from erasing your quirk. Tell me, what sort of power is the quirk 'Avatar?'"

Straight to the heart of the discussion then, no surprise with Aizawa's attitude towards wasting time. "I can't tell any more than my ability to control the four elements, I have to keep some secrets," he answered, obviously irritating the teacher. "Let's just say that my powers and their origins are beyond your reach or that of anyone who would like to control or take them."

Shota conceded the point with a shrug before moving on, "Don't we all have our secrets," he admitted, taking on an almost friendly attitude, only for it to be suddenly replaced with a face of seriousness. "After observing you today and during your exams, I can tell that you have matured beyond what is normal for your age, so I believe you can handle this information. This is intel that I've dug up from the criminal underworld, but your performance at the exams have caught the attention of some unsavoury villains. U.A. will do anything within its power to keep you safe, myself included, but you need to be on your guard, these villains might try to recruit you or force your conscription with blackmail."

He was not that surprised that someone would catch on to how powerful he was and would try to get control of it, but he was disheartened that it was happening so soon. "I understand, sir. This isn't the first time someone has tried to exploit me for my quirk, so I think I know what to look for," Katashi replied in a sturdy voice.

Aizawa almost looked saddened by this information, "Go on, get out of here, you have a life of youth to live," the teacher sighed. He stopped the young Avatar once more with a raised hand before he left "Also, be careful of your relationships with Miss Uraraka and Miss Ashido, they are still only fifteen and you're almost eighteen," he smirked. "Don't think I didn't notice how they both acted around you or how you acted around them. I may not disapprove of it, but that's mostly because I don't care unless you do anything to hurt them or hamper their careers as pro heroes. However, some parents are not as accepting as me, so tread lightly and know the consequences of what you are getting into."

Katashi blushed profusely with no idea of how to respond such an assumption, though he was not wrong about the Avatar's feelings for the two girls. The teacher did not wait for an answer for a response, he winked with his odd grin and shooed the student out of his office. Aizawa liked the kid, he was a logical person with outstanding maturity and potential to become a great hero, even greater than All Might and his successor, Midoriya Izuku. He turned back to the lesson plans for the rest of the week, and he suddenly had a great idea for testing the potential of Katashi's powers in All Might's test tomorrow.

 _~Elemental~_

Katashi, still red from the last part of his discussion with Shota, was caught off guard by the pink blur that jumped him the moment he stepped out of the school's front gate. "All mine now!" Mina declared with glee as she clung to the shocked Avatar.

"Wha-What are you doing here?" he managed to ask through the pink heroine's tight grasp around his chest.

She loosened her grip and stood back on her own feet but kept both her hands on his shoulders, "Well, I thought, since we don't have any homework tonight and we don't really hang out as much as I think we should, we should go to the arcade today, just you and me. A date if you want," she explained as lively as ever.

"A d-date?" he stammered. It felt like he was never going to get a break.

"Yeah, come on, cutie, let's go see how good you are at Dance Dance Revolution," Mina took his hand and abruptly took him down the street without asking, though was planning on saying yes.

She adeptly guided him through the maze of streets, showing her years of experience in navigating the same streets. It was a new view of the city to him and it was amazing how different it was from his old world: vibrant signs and building everywhere, lively crowds of people going about their business freely, and all the chakra he felt from the people that was free of the stress of war. Sure, this world may have its scars from the past and plenty conflicts, but a certain positivity hung in the air, like they knew there was danger around every corner but they were ready to face it.

They finally arrived at a lively shop lit up with bright signs and lights advertising games, but inside the shop was filled with an uncountable number of gaming consoles and dozens of teens playing at the games. There had been video games in his old world, but there were never large locations for children to gather and play the games like this arcade.

"Let's see what moves you got, Nishi-kun," Mina proclaimed her challenge as she dragged him over to a dancing game.

"Challenge accepted, Pinky! Get ready to have your butt kicked!" he countered with a laugh.

"Heh, 'Pinky,' that's a good idea for a hero name," she contemplated as she fed a few coins into the game slot.

They played the best of five games and Katashi did pretty well for his first time, but he was nowhere near the level of skill that Mina had as she won the gold for the match, beating him by a longshot in all five games. To be fair, they danced to fast paced songs that he had never heard before: he would to invest some time later to discover the popular music of this world and see what he liked.

The next hour and a half passed in a flash as they skipped from game to game, both having fun and trying to earn as many tickets from the machines as possible (Mina said that if they earned enough they could turn them in for prizes at the desk). He never knew he could have so much fun with video games, and Mina playing alongside him made it even more of a blast. Despite how many tickets it gave away, Katashi moved on to the next game everytime they approached one of the shooting games; they terrified him even though they may have had inaccurate and over-exaggerated animations. The pink heroine took note of all the times he flinched whenever shots and explosions rang out from the closest shooting game being played.

They eventually burned through all the Yen they had brought, so they took their tickets to desk in the back that was cluttered with cheap prizes and handed them over to the employee for their rewards. Mina chose a pair of colourful headphones styled with caricatures of some vocaloid while Katashi picked an interesting red device called a yo-yo and some chocolates for them to share. "You may be good at arcade games, but you ain't got nothing on me when it comes to Dance Dance Revolution," the girl recounted as she popped what was called a Hershey Kiss in her mouth.

"Perhaps, but how could I compete against a pro like you? Your feet were flying across the platform like they had minds of their own!" he tried to shove off how poor he did in comparison to her.

"Oh, how sweet of you. I've just had years of practice and have spent more money on that game than I should have," she blushed. They continued down the surprisingly empty street in silence for a few minutes, neither sure how to continue the conversation. As Katashi began to try and break the silence, Mina suddenly grabbed him by the tie of his uniform, pulled him down to her level, and planted a kiss on his lips. It was pretty brief, but it was enough to feel the passion before she pulled back and let him go.

"I… Er… Was… I mean-" he started as a stammering mess.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I just couldn't hold myself back," she tried to explain with waving hands and dark pink cheeks.

"That's not the problem, I liked it. It was just kind of unexpected," he responded in a similar manner, reminiscing on the taste of her lips.

"You did?" the embarrassed girl suddenly stopped.

"Yeah," he scratched the back of his head in a flustered manner.

"Does this mean we're…" she started off.

"If you want to…" he finished off, but no sooner than a second later he was engulfed in another hug with a kiss, this one lasting about a minute.

"Alright, lover-boy," Mina finally let go, savouring the memory of the moment they shared. "We should get home, it's getting late."

"Agreed, and we probably shouldn't stand in the middle of a sidewalk, even if it's empty," he consented absently, his mind stuck on the thought of her. "Mind if I walk you home?"

"Sure, only if you text me when you get home afterwards," she winked with her vivacious grin. She continued to hold his hand all the way back to her apartment, stealing glances at each other every so often.

 _~Elemental~_

"So, this is the person of interest that you and our master have been rattled about recently," the shadowy man in the suit asked the only other person in the bar that was holding up a picture for him to see. It was a picture of tall European boy with black hair and a nose that looked like it had been broken and improperly set.

"Yes, we first saw him during the U.A. entrance exam," replied the unkempt man with a single hand covering his face. "He has immense powers stronger than anything we've seen before. We need to recruit him or capture him as soon as possible. He will be a good pawn in our game." He scratched at his cheek absently.

"I will see what we can do, but if he is as powerful as you say, then it may take some time and a lot of effort," the shadow informed. The other man nodded. It was time to set things in motion.

 ** **A/N: Wow, I wasn't expecting to get another chapter done until the end of term, but here I am with the continuation of the story. There might be more flashbacks if you all think they need to be done, but they are done for now. Before any of you kill me, yes, Mina is very OCish, that's because I feel she is a better character like this but I won't make her completely different. Please review to let me know how you liked the chapter and if you think something needs to happen. Don't forget to Follow/Favourite if you liked it! Until Next Time****

 ** **~Grandmaster Robin~****


	4. Chapter 4: Revelations (New May 11 2018)

**A/N: Just a quick note before we get started. I got a few guest reviews that gave me some stuff to think about, so I went ahead and changed some stuff that needed to be changed. I did change Kasai's name to Katou Katashi, with Katashi being his first name. this name just felt better and I am sorry for any confusion that the change. Also, chapter 2 and 3 were combined into one backstory chapter, so the new chapter three is the old chapter 4 and the new chapter 4 would have been chapter 5, so on and so forth. I will discuss the reviews further post chapter. Enjoy!**

Chapter 4

Katashi could tell that Ochako did not take the news of him starting a relationship with Mina very well even if she did not outwardly admit to it. She talked to him less and less every day and she seemed to avoid him when possible. Things had become so tense at her home between them that he decided to file for school approved housing and moved out by the end of the first week to her parents' dismay. The effects even passed over to their school work as she had made the effort to find different partners for working on group assignments and giving bare minimum answers when he asked questions about the homework. The heart of the issue finally came to light during Class 1-A's first hero class with All Might at the end of the first week.

Technically the first hero class with All Might was meant to take place on the second day of school but something came up last minute in the number one hero's schedule that prevented him from teaching, so Aizawa took the class to do some physical exercises to get everyone in shape. It was strange enough that a hero class, probably the whole point of why everyone attended U.A., only lasted an hour because of All Might's odd schedule, but the fact that such a prominent public figure skipped out of the first day of his only class was peculiar if not downright suspicious. Katashi knew that he was a very busy man, but he checked the news reports after school and the only reports of All Might's hero activity all took place before the hero class and they were all within the vicinity of the school. Witnesses had even reported seeing him head towards U.A., so there seemed to be no reason why All Might missed their class and the longer Katashi thought about it the greater his suspicion grew about the odd situation. Though he was sure that he would not get any information if he pressed for it.

Their first lesson was a battle test where the class was broken into teams of two to practice as heroes attacking another team posing as villains in order to 'subdue' them or capture the 'bomb' they are protecting. In the first match up, Ochako and Mina were paired together as heroes against Asui Tsuyu and Ojiro Mashirao. The two girls could not agree on any way to approach the test and argued so much that they ended up being easily divided and conquered by their opponents. They later received a harsh scolding from both All Might and Aizawa, both telling them to sort out their differences before causing further problems.

Since the hero class only lasted for an hour, they had to split all the tests over the course of three days, which took place every other day. Shoji Mezo and Sero Hanta as heroes defeated Jiro Kyoka and Koda Koji; Todoroki Shoto and Kaminari Denki as villains defeated Sato Rikido and Aoyama Yuga; and Yaoyorozu Momo and Iida Tenya as villains defeated Tokoyami Fumikage and Eijiro Kirishima. Katashi was paired up with Midoriya Izuku to be the villains that faced off against Hagakure Toru and Bakugo Katsuki in the last test on the Thursday of the second week of school. Katashi had no doubt that the 'random' team matchups were rigged in order to get Izuku and Katsuki to face off as the grand finale. The facts that the two went to the same middle school, used to be friends, and had an almost violent rivalry were too many coincidences for the matchup to be just random, and it must have been the teachers that manipulated it so the two boys could try to settle their conflict. Toru and Katashi were just riding along for the roller-coaster.

"We still have a while until the test begins," Katashi began as he and the green-haired hero entered the room they would be defending. They were both wearing their hero costumes that could have been made by the school had they provided designs, but they both wore ones that they already owned. The green-haired hero was wearing a green and black home-made outfit with a bunny-eared cap that made him look like All Might. The young Avatar just wore his military uniform which included a black peaked cap, black boots, a crimson and black frock coat, and black trousers, all of which were relatively loose for easier movement (A/N: look up the uniform of a 19th century Prussian Landwehr, that's what I'm going for but with a red/black colour scheme rather than blue/white). "We should come up with a strategy for our defence. I think our best option is to hold the fort here and wait for them to come to us."

"I agree," Izuku consented, but then he started muttering under his breath, something about facing Kacchan but the rest was too quiet to comprehend. Nearly two weeks of being around the kid taught Katashi that his muttering was just a quirk of his timid nature and was his primary method of deep thought.

"Dude, you gotta stop that. No one is going to take you serious if you keep that up," the young Avatar commented, snapping the younger boy back into reality.

"Oh, sorry about that," he apologised. "We should strengthen our defences here. If we go out in search of them we'll only overextend ourselves and leave the target vulnerable. Since Hagakure-san is completely invisible she can easily slip past us so we need something to alert us of her presence." Izuku had a good head on his shoulders capable of strategy and quick thinking, it would help him in his career as a pro hero.

"There's got to be a water pipe on this level, I can use it to flood the floor as a warning system," he offered, getting a nod in return. "That solves one problem, but it leaves the heavy hitter."

"I can hold off Kacchan until you capture Hagakure-san, it will take both of us to fully deal with him," Izuku declared, his eyes full with the fire of confidence.

"Don't get in over your head, mate, I know you're strong but so is he. I've seen how he treats you in the last two weeks and I'm sure he has no qualms with going over-board in dishing out punishments against you," he voiced his genuine concerns to his friend.

Though he had been pressured into it by Mina in order to make more friends, he accepted Izuku's invitation to join his friend group despite the fact that Ochako was also a member. That in itself spawned its own awkward and uncomfortable moments, but the others in the group were amicable and the young Avatar felt he could warm up to them eventually despite the nearly three-year age difference between him and the rest of the class. The lunch periods he spent with the group, which consisted of Iida, Izuku, Ochako, Tsuyu, and (surprisingly) Denki Kaminari as well as Mina and himself, were energetic and fun in contrast to when he was in school in his old world. Denki was an odd one to say the least, Katashi remembered him from the entrance exam for having that powerful electricity quirk that seemed to dumb him down after extensive use. He was a smooth talker, or at least he tried to be, that often flirted with the girls of the class; he was not someone that the young Avatar would have gone out of his way to befriend, not that he remembered ever actively trying to make friends, but the blonde sort of followed Katashi into the group.

Overall, he was surprised by gaining these friends as well as his odd inclination to actively engage with them. But surrounding themselves with friends could not save himself nor Izuku from the dirty looks, insults, or other forms of verbal harassment that they frequently received from Bakugo. Though Katashi did not receive this treatment as badly as the green-haired hero, it was evident that this match was going to bring all their issues to light in a grudge match that would be more violent than any of the other fights.

"I can do it," Izuku affirmed again. "I have to distract him while you focus on trapping Hagakure-san." Katashi nodded in agreement, but he decided to keep an eye on his friend's confrontation with the explosive boy and make sure that no one was killed. He knew this confrontation was going to happen eventually and that there probably was not any other way to do it, but Katashi was glad that the teachers decided to manoeuvre it to happen sooner rather than later, even though they were still being manipulative bastards.

The two faux villains quickly got to work on clearing out the room and placing obstacles at all three door ways to inhibit entry further. By the time the start of the match was called, the young Avatar had found the water pipe and burst it open to flood the entire concrete floor with a few centimetres of water. Two minutes in and oddly not a sight of their opponents yet, the entire building began to rumble, signalling that Bakugo had discovered where they were at. Katashi gazed down the main hall to see the wild looking boy in his costume that screamed 'I like explosives' flying towards them, explosions from his hands propelling him forward like a fire-bender.

"Midoriya-kun!" he tried to get his friend's attention as he threw a water barrier over the door, but Bakugo broke through by the sheer force of his explosions.

"Out of my way, fucker!" the asshole roared as he sparked an explosion in Katashi's face while flying towards the green-haired target.

His quick reaction time was the only thing that saved his face as he used fire-bending to block the fire, but the sheer pressure from the explosion sent him flying towards one of the second doors. "Motherfucker!" he shouted in reaction.

Instead of landing in the water, he smacked into a solid invisible force mid-air, causing it to cry out with a sharp 'eep' as they both landed on the ground. He felt his face smothered into two good-sized, soft mounds, but he saw nothing except himself floating over parted water as he opened his eyes. ' _Are these what I think they are_?' he thought to himself as he groped at what was smothering his face, the feel of squishy skin and a soft point that stiffened at his touch confirmed his hunch.

He was fucked. If Toru didn't kill him then Mina would finish him off.

A slap to his face accompanied by Toru's cute embarrassed squeal threw him to the side and he splashed onto the waterlogged floor next to the invisible girl. Son of a bitch she could hit hard, though he deserved it even if he had not meant to fondle her breasts. He could hear the action of Izuku's fight heating up, and a quick look over his shoulder showed his partner desperately avoiding Bakugo's attacks, but the young Avatar could not run from his own situation. Both out of shame and out of duty to return Toru's honour.

He quickly got to his knees and bowed down into the water, "I'm so sorry for touching your breasts, Hagakure-san! Please forgive me!" he tried to apologise.

"Don't say it out loud! Just get up and fight," the invisible girl replied, she must have been flailing around in embarrassment with the splashing she was making. The frantic splashing changed into orderly splashes and Katashi looked up to see that Toru had made a dash for the bomb, seemingly forgetting what had just happened. With a wave of his arm in the direction of where he thought she was, he tripped the girl with the water on the floor and he assumed she fell back onto the grounds based on the splash that followed.

Not wasting any time in gaping at his success in getting the invisible girl, the young Avatar thrust out his other arm towards Toru and entrapped her in an icy prison. A quick check of her chakra showed her outline and reassured him that the girl's mouth and nose were not blocked. She was still struggling but it was all in vain against the effects of his water-bending.

"Oh, quit your fussing, its meant to be cold," Katashi scolded the whining girl. "I'll let you go once I tag you out. If you want I can make a fire to warm you up too," but that was as far as he could get before an explosion ripped through the entire room with blinding light and threw him back into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

The young Avatar did not know how long he had been out, but his ears were ringing and his vision blinded by the light. He could not remember where he had been except for an explosion, as his vision began to clear he found himself in a dark, muddy place that he thought he had forgotten. With his vision fully returned, he realised were he was: back in the trenches in the Earth Kingdom with ears ringing from the impact of a bombardment. He was back in his army uniform covered in the mud and blood of weeks of constant warfare. He must have died where ever he had been last because this was certainly his eternal damnation.

"No no no!" he muttered but he could not hear himself still. Where was his rifle? Was there anyone else there? They needed to get together if they were going to survive the enemy charge that would arrive at any moment. Fire was on the horizon, turning the twilight sky into a bloody mess as if foreshadowing the pending massacre. "Damn it damn it damn it! They're almost here! Where the fuck is it! I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die!" he was frantic to point of crying in search of his rifle as well as any others.

He found someone covered in dirt but when he uncovered them, tears still flooding his eyes, he found the mangled, bloody corpse of a kid no older than him. The body suddenly lurched up at him, causing him to reel back with a scream, "Dead dead dead! Stay the fuck away from me!" He tried to run away but his path was blocked by an Earth Kingdom soldier calling out his name. A sharp pain suddenly throbbed in his head, causing him to stagger, but he pushed it aside for the moment.

It tried to reach out towards him but he was quicker than the damned bastard and punched it in the face with a fire powered blow that sent it flying out of the way. The corpse somehow managed to get to its feet and was trying to grab him as well, so he sent it flying with the hardest hit he could manage. His path clear, he made for a cliff and jumped while using fire-bending to slow his descent into the canyon where he could finally run away.

He was running for a few minutes before they found him, several more soldiers suddenly appeared and began to surround him, prowling like a pack of beasts waiting to strike a lone prey. But he was not the prey, he was the hunter that would survive and kill the beasts for his freedom. The sight of his new enemies caused the throbbing pain in his head to flare up again as if it were trying to tell him something, but there was no time to think about such matters when he had more pressing matters. Katashi briefly pressed his palm against his temple in order to sooth the ache before turning his attention towards the shadowy figures. "I won't die this time, Earth motherfuckers!" and he struck first and struck hard with another fire powered punch to one their faces.

The rest of the fight was mostly a blur, but he did know that he used all the power at his disposal to fight all of them at the same time without a care for any injuries that he incurred in the process of handing their asses to them. Some of their fighting styles seemed familiar for some reason, which was weird because none of their powers could control the earth like they should have. One of them could manipulate ice like a water-bender and he was one of the only ones of the smaller fighters that could hold himself against Katashi's offensive. Two larger soldiers arrived, causing more pain in his skull, to join the fray, but they seemed more interested in distracting him and tiring him out than actually fighting. And at the rate he was burning energy, it was likely they would succeed in a couple minutes, but there was no way he could let up now to conserve energy at the expense of looking weak. Those that were yet to be put out for the count were backing away slowly, except the two that were giving him the most trouble, they stood defiantly before him.

"Y'all had enough yet, you earth eating shit-bags! I can do this all day!" he challenged with a roar to cover his fear. The two seemed unfazed by his insult, but the others were unnerved into standing down. What shocked him though was when his two opponents relaxed their stances and gazed towards something behind him.

He could not resist following their gaze, only to stifle a cry as he saw who it was and the tears began to flow anew. "Fumiko? But you're dead?" Katashi sobbed quietly. The beautiful woman continued to approach without answer. She drew closer to him, close enough for him to smell a familiar scent, but one that did not belong to her. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but the blond woman pulled back her fist quickly and clobbered him in the face at full strength, sending his consciousness into the darkness of oblivion.

 _~Elemental~_

{Post-test teacher's conference transcript}

{A full meeting of the staff at U.A. was called by Principle Nezu in the aftermath of an incident at the school wherein one student attacked his classmates during a test, causing most to need medical attention. This transcript of the meeting was created for the purpose of records and historical documentation. By no means is this intended for the use of incriminating any or all of the individuals involved and cannot be used for prosecution by Police order}

{By accordance to Japan's laws, the Police department was called for the incident and are in attendance of the conference. Names of officers have been redacted and teachers are referred to by their Pro Hero names for privacy}

{Due to the important roles they played in the incident, Ashido Mina's and Katou Katashi's names will not be redacted}

{Friday March 30, 20XX}

"So, what happened to cause all of this?" {Officer *****}

"My guess is that the final explosion Young [redacted student name] set off brought on some sort of psychological response to past mental trauma." {All Might}

"After seeing the recording for myself I have to agree with you." {Principle Nezu}

"From my observations, I believe his mind was somewhere else from his past and he felt like he was fighting off whoever was attacking him in the past." {Recovery Girl}

"What sort of past does such a young man have that would turn him into a frightened animal that thinks his fellow students are his killers and drives him to fight them to the death when they try to calm him down. He took out [redacted student name], [redacted student name], and [redacted student name] with only one punch each. Hell, he even went toe-to-toe with both All Might and [Eraserhead]." {Officer *****}

"All Might was holding back a lot and neither of them were attacking him, they were just trying wear him out, but even then it looked like the kid had enough energy to keep going all day. All Might only broke three of the kid's ribs through defensive moves." {Vlad King}

"And It's clear that [Eraserhead]'s quirk had no effect on him." {Midnight}

"He still took out seven students and sent the rest to the infirmary as well like it was a piece of cake! He's dangerous and we need to take action to control him before he hurts anyone else!" {Officer *****}

"Rest assured we are doing everything and making the appropriate plans to take action for what has happened. What we need to do is stay calm and tread carefully as we approach this situation so as not to incite another incident." {Principle Nezu}

"His mind was not in the right place, he nearly took the full brunt of [redacted student name]'s attack. It's clearly not his fault and the rest of the students know it, they saw and heard what happened on the screen. It was clear that he was suffering from some sort of nightmarish memory brought on by a concussion. I doubt this will happen regularly, he was caught off guard by the attack and was probably still too thrown by what happened with [redacted student name]." {Recovery Girl}

"What if something similar happens and he goes into another rage, he could actually kill someone next time." {Officer *****}

"Our initial tests and exercises, as well as evidence from the practical exam, indicate that Katou-kun is usually a very instinctive and reflexive individual, so it's unlikely he would be caught off-guard by something like [redacted student name]'s attack. That's not to say he is perfect, he is far from it, which is why he is attending U.A. in the first place. So I believe this issue can be dealt with swiftly and safely if you allow us teachers to address it internally." {Eraserhead}

"The question still remains. What could have happened to Katou-kun in his past that would give him memories triggered by an explosion? His records show that he was a relatively regular kid before coming to U.A. with nothing very outstanding happening to him except that he was orphaned at a young age." {Present Mic}

"It's obvious that his files were foraged, but anyone just looking at them couldn't tell that. I had an investigation team take a closer look and they discovered that everything on him are foraged by an untraceable source. Someone with exceptional hacking and foraging skills. While he is a suspect in the forgery, all evidence points towards Katou-san's intent being pure in his desire to be a hero. This will be his one and only warning and the police department will keep a close eye on him in case of another incident." {Officer *****}

"We were lucky that Young Ashido was able to distract him and pacify him." {All Might}

"Who ever it was that he saw her as must have been caused by their relationship. He looked at her like she was an angel descending from Heaven to bless him. Or it could have been something a little more risqué -" {Midnight}

"Enough of that [Midnight], they're only kids. Let's not pin them with such indecent accusations, please." {Principle Nezu}

"let's just hope that he forgets all of this, because I doubt even your healing could mend the betrayal he would have felt from Ashido-chan's attack, [Recovery Girl], if he remembers." {Eraserhead}

"Wounds of the mind and soul can never truly be healed. They can only be treated by time, care, and love." {Recovery Girl}

"I can tell that Ashido-chan can definitely help Katou-kun recover. Where is she anyway?" {Thirteen}

"Young Ashido has been by Young Katou's bedside ever since he was moved to the recovery room. She even skipped afternoon classes to be with him." {All Might}

"She didn't miss much, none of them could pay attention in my class because of what happened. I don't blame them for being frayed a little bit after all of this." {Ectoplasm}

"Let's just hope they're all recovered in time for their session at the USJ next week." {Thirteen}

"Principle Nezu will have final say in whether or not they are ready." {Eraserhead}

"We should also try to get in touch with the class and assure them that Young Katou-kun meant no harm to them. We don't want them to ostracise him, but we also need them to refrain from telling him the full story." {All Might}

"Alright then, we should probably break this up now, we all have assignments to grade and a student couple alone in the infirmary that we need to keep from doing anything ill-appropriate." {Principle Nezu}

""""Agreed.""""

{End of Transcript}

 _~Elemental~_

Katashi woke to a major headache and throbbing pains in both his nose and his lungs, but a quick check proven nothing was broken except his nose that would always look like it was incorrectly set the first time he broke it (Which it was never set properly in any of the three other times it was broken). But he still could not figure out why he was in an infirmary bed in the first place. Did Bakugo beat him that badly? It looked like Izuku had him on the ropes. The young Avatar could not remember anything that happened after the blinding explosion from that wild boy.

Then he noticed the pink heroine that was sitting on the next bed to him with a forlorn and depressed visage, but then it seemed that she had finally noticed his movement. Her face immediately brightened as tears of joy began to flow from her black and yellow eyes. She jumped onto his bed and enveloped him in a hug that could crush bone. "You're awake! I was afraid you went into a coma!"

"I'm glad to wake up to the sight of you too, but how long have I been out?" he questioned, his head a little groggy from sleep. He could never tell how long he slept with his naps. For all he knew, he could had slept all the way to the weekend.

"It's only been about five hours, it's around six-thirty," she glanced at the ironically pink watch she wore. "You had me scared after you took that blast Midoriya-kun reflected from Bakugo. You're lucky Recovery Girl can fix broken ribs and noses easily."

Katashi felt like something was being left out from her explanation, but it was not important at the moment, "So I guess we lost too then."

"Oh no, Midoriya-kun managed to pull it off," Mina corrected. "He hurt himself with his quirk like usual but he still tagged Bakugo out at the last minute, so you still won. Not much was said about your test in the review. All that matters right now is that you're alive and not semi-permanently unconscious!"

Katashi could not come up with the words to explain how happy he felt to hear those words come from her. Sure, they may have only known each other for about a month and have dated for a little but hearing her say that definitely meant more to him than he let on, "Well, I have so much to do and I can't leave you alone." Okay, it was a cheesy thing to say and he knew it but it was the best he could think of at the moment. Maybe she would let it slide this time?

Mina could taste how cheesy his response was and she wanted to glare at him for it, but she knew that was pretty much the best he could do in showing his affection. Well, either be cheesy or get strangely philosophical that made it seem like he had wisdom beyond his age. "Alright Kata-kun, we're going to have to work on your smooth talking at a later date, but for now…" she pulled back and slapped him across the face. It didn't hurt at all but it was still shocking all the same. "That's for scaring the hell out of me." She then leaned in to kiss him for a few seconds, savouring every moment of the blissful experience before pulling back again. "And that is for coming back to me in one piece."

Katashi was a blushing mess, it was their second time kissing and yet again it was Mina that initiated it. It still befuddled him how much someone could like him, let alone someone as amazing as the pink heroine. However, he did not get the chance to make any response as they were interrupted, "If you're finished now, I have to ask you to refrain from such activity at school," Aizawa scolded the two lovers from the doorway to the infirmary. "I have just a few things to ask of you, Katou-kun, before you can be discharged."

Perhaps his first impression of their homeroom teacher was a bit inaccurate, but it did not help his case that Aizawa rolled into the class on the first day in a sleeping bag and looked like he had not cleaned himself in a couple days. In the teacher's defence, he was dedicated to his job as a teacher and a pro hero to the point that he would work so late into the night that he just ended up sleeping in the school (Katashi had found him sleeping in his office several times when he was on morning classroom duty and had to report to the faculty office). That did not mean the young Avatar trusted the man yet, but he at least changed his impression of his teacher: from that of a creepy man that probably should not be working around children to a man that was oddly dedicated to his job and his charges.

"Yes, sensei, what questions do you have for me," Katashi answered his calling. In truth, he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so he could spend the rest of what was left of the day with Mina. Aizawa glanced sideways at the pink heroine, probably meaning that he did not want her to hear the questioning, but Katashi just motioned for him to continue.

"First of all, the answers you provide will only be open to the necessary staff members, including myself, Principle Nezu, All Might, Vlad King, and Recovery Girl," the teacher began after pulling out a clipboard to write down notes as well as a recorder while he sat on another infirmary bed, "What was the last thing you remember before you passed out? Be completely honest with me, even if your answer is not much." Mina suddenly stiffened at the question but made no further indication of her attitude other than a slight scowl towards Aizawa.

"Well, I remember the beginning of the test, setting up defences with Midoriya-kun, and then Bakugo the jackass," he began but stopped when Aizawa raised an eyebrow at the vulgar epithet. "I mean… I remember my good mate, Bakugo, deciding to destroy everything and introducing me to his partner, Hagakure-san." Mina glared at him briefly, then returned to her slight scowl at the homeroom. "I went to go tag her out, then there was this bright flash followed by pain, lots of it. And that's all I can remember."

"Was the incident with Hagakure-chan a complete accident?" he asked after writing a few notes.

"Yes, I would never violate another student like that, and I will apologise to Hagakure-san in anyway possible for doing such indecent things to her," he answered honestly.

"No need, she has already forgiven you and, along with All Might and myself, has scolded Bakugo-kun severely for his reckless behaviour," Aizawa countered, lifting a heavy concern off of the young Avatar's shoulders. "Next question, do you hold any ill will towards anyone in the class or wish to do physical or mental harm towards your classmates?"

It was not an odd question if he were aiming to check Katashi's mental stability following a brain injury like his concussion. "No, I do not. Except Bakugo, because he is a jackass like I said before and deserves a few good smacks on the noggin to set him straight." Once again, he was being honest, but this time his answer only elicited a nod and a few notes from the interrogator as well as a grunt of agreement from Mina.

"Now, have you received any head injuries or found yourself in stressful situations that have resulted in unusual behaviours or violent tendencies," the teacher asked in his monotone voice.

Damn, the man sure knew how to stab at the heart of issues. There was no way that Katashi could lie about this without getting caught, Aizawa was too perceptive to be tricked by a lie on such an important issue. And with Mina there with him, he could not bring himself to lie to her. He did not want to create false trust between them, even if that meant revealing secrets that could possibly scare her away.

"Yes, both have occurred in the past," he answered plainly. Mina immediately turned to him with a look of concern but remained silent.

"If you don't feel comfortable with the next question, you don't have to answer. And Ashido-chan, I would recommend covering your ears if you are light of heart," Aizawa warned. Mina shook her head while Katashi nodded his head for the teacher to move on with the questions. "Would any of these past events be the cause of or related to the numerous scars all over your body that range from lacerations and burns to gunshot wounds and other puncture wounds?"

They must have found them during a physical inspection after he passed out, so it was not too much of a surprise that a question about them would have come up. What saddened him though was the look of horror that was growing on Mina's face in response to the list of injuries. There was no doubt that his answer would throw her into a fit of worry where she would demand answers.

"Yes."

"Are you comfortable with giving any explanation for them?"

"I hid my powers for the longest time, until the age of twelve, but an incident with school bullies forced me to reveal them, which then caught the attention of some unsavoury people. These injuries were a result of this group's attempts to use me as a means to their own ends," he finished to see the expected reaction from Mina and the surprising look of concern from Aizawa.

The teacher continued on to the next question after a few notes, "We have enough evidence from your testimony to conclude that you did not live a regular childhood and have room to believe that some if not all the documents that we have on you are false and foraged. Is this true? You can be honest; your answer will not be used to prosecute or expel you from U.A."

This was the moment of commitment, he could not back down after this answer and he feared what waited for him after it even if his safety was assured, there was no way to trust what consequences could befall him. "Yes, when I finally got away I had nothing and had to make myself anew. I falsified and planted all the documents you have myself with my expert hacking skill. I was certified a genius at the age of eight, that's why everything comes so easily to me and how I gained the skills to hack government level security from a public library computer without being traced." Aizawa could only grimace at the realisation that the young Avatar was purposely admitting to the truth in this manner to both be honest and to make fools out of them. "I know it was wrong to make such fabrications, and I will never forgive myself for creating something I did not have that others did, but it was the only way I could eventually use my quirk for good."

Katashi's honesty was one of his best qualities, in Mina's opinion, that and his dashingly good looks that somehow managed to benefit from his broken nose. Even all the half truths he used indicated that he abhorred outright fibbing. Despite how a lot of the fact that she just learned about him scared her and made her worried beyond all reason, she felt a deeper connection to the older boy and a sense of unbreakable trust. She did not want to let go of him even if he may have broken several laws just to become a hero.

"One last question, Katou-kun," Aizawa continued back to his normal bored expression, though he had no doubt the young hero was going to say something to make him change it again. "Why do you want to be hero? What drives you to go to such lengths to get into a school for heroes?"

The question caught the young Avatar off guard, forcing him to really think about his answer for a while. Until this moment, he had been riding on the drive from Raava that it was his duty as the Avatar to be a hero and he did not feel like he needed anything else to justify what he did. But since he came to this world, he felt less of a connection to Raava every day, and now it felt like she was not even there. He was on his own with no guidance except for the less-than reputable past reincarnations of himself, some of whom were mass-murderers, not that he had much room to talk.

So why did he want to be a hero? Without his connection to Raava he felt no sense of obligation to his duties as the Avatar. But that did not mean he was a heartless scum. He knew it was the right thing to do and that he ought to do it, but why should he? He pondered this for several minutes, and it was obvious that Aizawa expected this as he began to get comfortable.

After several minutes of contemplation, sitting on the bed comfortably with Mina settled next him and trying to wait as patiently as possible, the answer he was looking for spawned on him. "The selfish part of it is because I have been forced to do unspeakable things to innocent people and I wish to atone for my sins. The other part of it is because I know what its like to be used, to be reduced to mere means to an end, a tool for the service of the greater good. The greater good is an absolute bullshit excuse to trample on the rights of individuals, if I am to serve the people then I wish to do it on my own terms to protect them from the same suffering. Call me an idealist if you wish but isn't it the point of ideals to guide us on our paths?" he finished with the rhetoric question. Katashi felt proud of the answer that he produced, but he still worried that it was not good enough for Aizawa.

 _Damn, this kid should become a philosopher with the way he thinks_ , Aizawa thought to himself cracking a genuine smile for once. Judging on the nature of the kid's past, there was probably no way he could get any further information without causing more pain to his student by digging up agonising memories. "Good answer. You truly have good potential for becoming an outstanding hero. That is all for the questions, so you are in the clear to go home and get some rest. Oh, and don't forget to do your homework, the both of you, I put the assignments you missed from Ectoplasm's class with your stuff in the classroom." Without speaking any further, the homeroom teacher took his leave with a slight bow.

Aizawa left the infirmary with more questions than when he arrived, and he knew he probably would not gain any more answers without earning more trust from the kid, which would be extremely difficult seeing how little he trusted adults in the first place. While the boy had done no damage to either Eraserhead or All Might, he had still gone toe-to-toe with the two pro heroes with adequate control over his quirk all while suffering from a concussion, and that amount of power and skill put the Erasure Hero on edge. His student had conviction in his purpose for being a hero and a desire to do good, but there were too many unknown factors in Katashi's past that could possibly sway him to change directions into becoming a villain.

He was glad that the young Avatar found someone so soon that could keep him in check and set him straight when needed, even if the girl, Mina, could not be controlled by the school. Aizawa hated the idea of trying to manipulate any of his students, but the school and the government, to an extent, wanted to keep Katashi on a very short leash because of how formidable he could potentially be. With the information of his history that these answers provided, it was likely that the school and government will become more dominating over the boy's education as they tried to find out who it was that he had fled. Aizawa would bet money that it was the Americans, and the thought of them having their hands on Katashi and using him like a weapon terrified the homeroom teacher. The fact that the boy wore a military uniform, even if it was a bit outdated, for his hero costume gave away what he was probably forced to do.

While he had no desire to manipulate his students, it was obvious that Katashi would need a good influence in his life to work on preventing more incidents as well as dissuade him from going down the wrong path. He had also noticed in the short first two weeks of school that Mina was also doing much better than her middle school records let on, about which the teacher guessed that she had done so poorly due to a lack of effort and motivation rather than lack of intelligence. Whether it was actual causation or just correlation, he would not learn without intrusive investigation, but if he had to pin a guess then he would have to believed that her better performance was due to Katashi's influence and/or new motivation to catch up to her boyfriend. So Aizawa felt that it was necessary to allow his student's relationship with Ashido Mina to continue if not openly encourage it, despite the fact the boy was practically an adult, they just needed to address the topic with her parents on their own terms.

He was not really looking forward to having to report all this information to the rest of the faculty in person. It could just as easily be conveyed in an email without wasting any time that could be spent grading assignments and creating lesson plans.

 _~Elemental~_

Neither Mina nor Katashi said anything for several moments after Aizawa left, neither knowing what to say with all that just happened. The young Avatar felt exposed with all the secrets he had to reveal and feared how his girlfriend was going to react to such deep and horrifying information. The Pink heroine on the other hand was not afraid but full concern and apprehension over the boy she had come to adore, and potentially even love, and the past of dismaying memories that could endanger him. Sure, she was afraid of getting caught in his rampage, but she was more concerned with the underlying cause that had been unearthed during the questioning and trying to comfort him in any way that she could.

"I guess we should get back to the classroom so I can get changed out of my hero costume," Katashi broke the silence, noticing his dirty uniform. Mina was still in her school uniform since she had completed her test in the first session.

"Ah, yes, my good soldier boy. Let's get back to the class so you can take it all off for me," Mina flirted with a wink. It was getting a bit too depressed in there for her liking and it needed more liveliness. She didn't do it because she could not handle a serious situation, quite the opposite actually, but she believe good laughter, friendship, and love to be the perfect medicine for pretty much any situation. But she also liked to render her boyfriend blushing like a strawberry.

Which she was successful in doing so again. "Damn it, Mina-chan, you got me again," the young Avatar prattled through blood red cheeks. He had to get back at her somehow if he was going to get out of this embarrassment streak, but what could he say? "As much as I would enjoy to give you such a show, I believe school rules state that you have to stay in the hallway while I change, so we'll have to save it for another time."

"Fuck you're right," she cursed through her own now lavender cheeks. Damn, he's starting to learn.

"Come on, Mina-chan, let's get out of here," Katashi lead the pink heroine as he slipped off the medical bed, taking her by the hand. "I feel like I'm going to get sick if I stay in here any longer."

"I agree, not enough colour," she agreed as she followed eagerly. It always made her happy to hold his hand, even in the times when it was not being done romantically.

Thirty minutes later they found themselves at the empty train station near U.A. waiting together on a bench, sitting quite closely. Now that they lived in opposite directions from the school, they had to enjoy the time together after leaving campus as much as they could before they had to get on separate trains unless they had specifically planned to hang out after school. The platform was typically packed with students from U.A. when school dismissed and they would usually find an empty corner to have a little privacy, not that they did much more than hold hands closely and occasionally peck a kiss because they were still in public and had some decency for others nearby. But since they arrived long after school hours and it was getting late there was no one at the station, so the two lovers took the opportunity to park a seat on a bench to get some intimacy, if you consider intimacy to be sitting close together while Katashi wrapped his arm around Mina and she leaned closely into his side.

"This may be an odd thing to say, but I'm actually enjoying school for once in my life," the pink heroine started without moving from her position. "Coming to U.A. has been the best part of my life, except for seeing you get really hurt. That wasn't fun. But it's been amazing besides that. Meeting you, dating you, making friends, and getting to freely use my quirk in gym class."

"I can agree that it's definitely been the best part of my life too," the young Avatar nodded. He had not felt at ease this much in God knows how long. It's been longer than he can remember. "I don't care where or who I would be if I had not met you because I sure as hell prefer who I am now than who I used to be."

"Damn do you know how to be romantic at the right times. Just need to work on your social skills for the rest of the time," she ruffled his hair before sneaking in a kiss. "But don't think your romance is going is going to get you out of showing me your scars and having a little talk about them, that's still going to happen."

Katashi stiffened a little, but he knew that there was no way to get out of it, only that he should embrace it. "It's already past seven o'clock, do you want to spend tomorrow afternoon together?"

"Yeah, tomorrow is Friday too so we don't have to worry about doing homework immediately then," she agreed just as her train rolled into the station. After a passionate kiss and a hug, he followed Mina to the edge of the platform to see her off and wait for his own train. "I'll text you when I get home so we can decide on what to do for our date! Later, Kata-kun, love you!"

The last bit caught him off guard, did she just say what he though that she said? And did she seriously say that in public? He could already see the annoyed glances from the commuters on the train that disapproved of the public display of affection. Should he ignore their disapproval or not? "Oh… Er… I mean… I love you too, Mina-chan!" he waved with blush as the doors slid close, blocking both the pink heroine and the annoyed commuters.

He just said that he loved Mina for the first time! And he definitely meant it, even if he felt really awkward about it.

 _~Elemental~_

He was in such a good mood on the train ride home that he would have missed the dark presence had it not been so powerful and pulsating. It lit up his warning senses like a firework show, but he did not have Raava to ask for advice on the situation so he just decided to continue home once he had determined it was not following him. Something felt eerily familiar about the presence, but he had no recollection in his memory of anything that radiated that kind of malice. He would have to consult the past Avatars, which might not be of any use since he could not connect to anyone past Korra, not even the legendary Avatar Aang.

Whatever it was, it had certainly noticed him but chose to let him go as though it had more pressing matters. There was no doubt in Katashi's mind that it was something he would have to investigate and learn more about before he could even dream about going to confront it. Even if he put that task on the back burner, it would always nag him at the edges of his consciousness.

Whatever it was, he was no longer as alone as he once thought. It was waiting for the right moment. Waiting in the shadows.

~Elemental~

With his good mood already thoroughly ruined by the drive by, there was no way for it to get any worse, right? What could be worse than getting a bad feeling over some unforeseen force leering at you with a dirty look like it was too busy kicking puppies to deal with you at the moment? The answer is yes, regardless of the fact that the answer does not fit the second question.

Just as the young Avatar was walking home from the train station that he got off at, still brooding over the dark malice, he passed by a dark alleyway and caught sight of a poor old schmuck getting mugged by three other thuggish schmucks. Without a second thought after fully realising what was going on, he charged down the alley with flames engulfing both of his fists.

"Hey, assholes! Why don't you fuck off!" he called out with his voice full of rage. It certainly caught the attention of all three of the muggers, but they looked surprised that someone was actually going to interfere with there one of their regular shakedowns.

The one on the right decided to make a flurry of bubbles with his quirk in order to distract their attacker, but Katashi flew right threw them to deliver a fire-powered punch directly into the man's gut and knocking him down for the count. These were just petty criminals, so there was no reason for the young Avatar to unleash his full power, let alone more of his bending abilities.

The second thug didn't even use a quirk when he attacked, either through bravery or sheer stupidity, with just the knife that he had in hand from mugging the old man. Katashi did not even bother with his own powers as he dodged the sloppily attempted stab, grabbed the thug's overextended arm and brought it down swiftly and forcefully onto his raised knee. Satisfied with the sickening crack that followed, he took the thug by the collar and hurled him against the wall as hard as he could, which resulted in them slumping over unconscious from the shock of a broken arm and knocking his skull on concrete.

Unlike the braver, or stupider, criminals, the third hesitated with utter terror at the prospect of attacking this wild boy that had taken out their compatriots in less than a minute. Seeing the apprehension in the mugger, Katashi, with a malicious grin, flared up a fifteen-metre-tall column of white hot flames that scorched the ground but left all the inhabitants in the alleyway un marked. Unexpectedly, the third thug just fainted rather than flee, they collapsed onto the ground with piss-stained pants _. That was too easy_ , the young Avatar thought disappointedly.

He then turned back to the bruised up old man whose mouth was still agape in awe, "You alright, grandpa? They didn't hurt you too much did they?" he inquired with a concerned but upbeat smile on his face.

The old man snapped out of his stupor, "Oh, not they didn't. thank you very much, young one!" the old man tried to bow as much as he could to show his gratitude. "As thankful as I am, you should not have done that. You're just a kid still, not a pro hero. I doubt there was a pro nearby that would find it worth their time to help me out of my fickle, but that doesn't excuse you to break the law."

"What do you mean? I rescued you," his visage changed into a confused frown.

"Oh, you will find out soon enough, young one," he commented with a sad gaze as he peered around the young Avatar.

Following his sight, Katashi turned around to see three police officers enter the alleyway at a brisk pace, one of them was calling for back up to the radio on his shoulder. "Ah, officers! I managed to stop three criminals that were unfairly ganging up on this old man to mug him. One has a broken arm and another just fainted out of fear," he informed the policemen.

"Good job, kid," the eldest officer scowled despite the praise, "But I'm going to have to ask you to put your hands behind your back," he requested as he approached the young Avatar.

"Wait, what?"

But the officer didn't allow any more questions as he snatched Katashi's hands, forced the boy to turn around, and swiftly locked a pair of handcuffs onto the seized hands with the skills that spoke of many years of experience. "You are under arrest for the public use of your quirk without a licence and the act of vigilantism," the officer began to list off the rights he had, the nature of his arrest, and the procedures to follow. "Junior, take him back to the station and process him, McClain and I will clean up this mess."

"Yes, sir!" the youngest officer answered with gung-ho.

"But I haven't done anything wrong! I saved that man! Ask him, I'm telling the truth!" Katashi tried to argue but the young officer just kept pushing him out of the alley and towards a car labelled 'police.'

"Save it for your defence, you damned vigilante," the young officer scolded as he shoved the cuffed Avatar into the back seat of the car, slamming the door after him.

 _I'm fucked_ , Katashi thought plainly, _if Mina doesn't kill me then Aizawa-sensei will definitely off me for getting myself arrested_. Everything after that and once he arrived at the station was a blur of confusing and strange procedures as he moved from one room to another, being asked questions all along the way, until he was uncuffed and placed into holding cell.

He sat in that holding cell alone for several hours, contemplating his thought and what had just happened. Sure, he could have gotten away from the cops, but they were just civil servants that were doing their job and he did not want to hurt them, plus he knew that he did not do anything wrong so he was certain that he would find a way out of this. How could doing the right thing and saving a man without killing anyone earn him incarceration? It seemed a bit backwards for a society that was focused on heroics and saving people.

He did not know how long he had been sitting in the cell in his normal meditative pose, but the sky outside his window had long since turned pitch black by the time an officer arrived at his cell and began to unlock the door. "You're being released with no charges pressed. You can thank the man outside for your freedom."

"Who is it?" he inquired fruitlessly.

"Follow me to collect your personal affects," the officer ignored his question as he slid open the cell door. Katashi complied with the orders as he followed the officer that led him to a desk that was walled off by bulletproof glass with a single opening for items to be passed through. The desk jockey looked bored as he had the young Avatar sign for his affects before he handed over his school bag, wallet, house keys, and cell phone. With everything in order, he followed the officer to the front door, stepped out of the station and took a breath of free air.

"Haven't I seen you enough for one day?" a bored voice scolded him from the bottom of the station steps. Aizawa stood at the bottom of the steps looking just as unkempt as ever in his pro hero outfit with a tired but disappointed expression on his face.

"Aizawa-sensei!" he was actually surprised that it was his homeroom teacher that came to bail him out of jail.

"You're lucky I caught wind of your arrest and that your girlfriend can be pretty persistent when she wants to find out why you're not replying to her texts," the teacher continued to reprimand as he gestured for the student to come down the steps. "I pulled some strings and explained how you were one of my students at U.A. to get you set free without charges. The only condition was that this will be your only warning, you're on thin ice as it is."

"Thank you, sensei," he bowed deeply to his teacher when he reached the bottom of the steps, only to receive a hard smack over his head with Aizawa's scarf.

"Damn it, Katashi! Vigilantism? I knew you were reckless, but breaking the law? I expected better." The teacher was almost shouting now.

"I'm sorry, sensei, but it was the right thing to do," the young Avatar remained bowed.

"But did you ever think to consider the consequences of throwing yourself into a situation like that?" Aizawa countered.

Katashi raised himself to full height to stand even with the tall teacher, ready to answer, "The consequences are inconsequential, nothing is set in stone and anything can happen! What matters is that old man was being mugged and there was no one there to save him except me, those police officers only arrived after my display caught their attention!" he argued with his voiced raised as well.

But it earned him an even harder strike across the cheek from the teacher, "You dumbass, it's that kind of reckless behaviour that's going to get you killed!" After a few tense moments of exchanging scowls, Aizawa recomposed himself with a calmer demeanour. "But as a pro hero, I have to agree that what you did was right. You rescued a civilian and captured three wanted criminals. Don't think you're off the hook, you fucked up big time and caused both the police and me a lot of grief. Not to mention how worried your girlfriend is, you have to fix that soon and apologise to her."

"I'm sorry, Aizawa-sensei," Katashi felt himself calm down as well.

"While you are learning to be a hero," continued the homeroom teacher, "you are still learning and have a long way to go before you're ready. It's your job to learn how to be the best hero you can be, leave the rescuing to those that have already figured that out for themselves." He placed a hand on the young Avatar's shoulder to better communicate his care for his student. "Now it's past midnight and you have deprived both yourself and me from precious sleep. Get yourself home, apologise to Ashido-chan, and get as much sleep as you can in the next five hours. School is not going to change it's hours just for your sleepy ass."

Katashi apologised and thanked him once more before heading off in the direction of his apartment. He was truly thankful for his teacher, but he did not have time to contemplate how much he trusted the man, there were more pressing matters. Like the one-hundred-and-three messages from Mina that congested his phone. He was definitely a dead man for all the trouble and worry that he caused for the girl that he loved.

~Elemental~

"New orders from my master, Kurogiri," Shigaraki informed the shadowy villain that stood across the bar from him, aimlessly cleaning a mug.

"What news from above?" the shadow asked.

"Master's other disciple, the one that calls himself the Dark One has claimed Katou Katashi as his personal target and we are to let him do whatever he wants when we strike," the man-child villain grumbled.

"That does change things," commented the shadow.

"Perhaps, but the mission still remains in place. Our attack is at hand."

 **A/N: So, yeah, a lot happened. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. sorry about the wait, the school term is over for the summer so I am somewhat free to write. To set things straight from all the reviews from last chapter, No this is not a harem, Mina is the only girl for Katashi. Don't worry about Ochako, I have planned out the important pairings. So far I have planned for Ochako x Bakugo, Tsuyu x Izuku, Jiro x Kaminari, and Momo x Shoto. You're welcome for the full class count too, and yes I did get rid of Mineta, he never really deserved a place in Class 1-A. Will this story follow the plot of the Manga/Anime? Yeah, somewhat, but I think you can guess where Katashi's path will lead given how the chapter ended. Thank you for sticking around until the end of this chapter and I hope you enjoy it! Leave a review to let me know how you felt about it. Follow/favourite the story if you liked it! Until next time,**

 **~Grandmaster Robin~**


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